Opinion: Sanctions against Russia, Belarus will ruin some European businesses

“Just now I read the information that the Lithuanian businessmen were making progress. They have a lot of Belarusian and Russian goods which have been recently sanctioned. They are forced to withdraw these goods from sale, which will actually ruin them,” said Olga Shpilevskaya.

She also touched upon the issue of diversification, the matter the Belarusian president constantly mentioned. “We have this diversification today. If we talk about tourism, people head for the countries close to us. These are beautiful countries - Georgia, Armenia, Tajikistan, where there is a lot of interesting things to do and see. We are developing domestic tourism. This is also very good. How will the resorts of Italy or Bulgaria do without Russians? It is a really big question,” she said.

Olga Shpilevskaya noted that sanctions imposed against Belarus in 2020 affected global industries - potash fertilizers and heavy industry. Then the president said that the products would be sold to other countries. “They act differently in Russia. The sanctions have affected the mass market, the stores there. It is something that concerns everyone, and in this way they try to raise the middle class, to heat up the situation from inside, to make people angry. We, however, are not yet such a consumer society. I believe they will not succeed,” she said.