Belarusian exports to the European Union and North American countries to a sum of 16 to 18 billion US dollars a year have been blocked by the Western sanctions, Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said in an interview with Al Arabiya, fragments of which were aired by the Belarus-1 television channel on Sunday, Trend reports citing TASS.
"Practically all Belarus’ exports to the countries of the European Union and North America have been blocked by the sanctions. Roughly, the sum stands at about 16-18 billion US dollars a year," he said.
According to Golovchenko, Belarus interprets these sanction "not merely as an instrument of pressure but as an instrument of hybrid aggression." "Probably, this is the last stage that precedes a classical armed aggression," he said. "The sanction’s aim, unlike their classical meaning, is to bring the country to its knees, to stifle it economically and force it to comply with certain demands or conditions.".