MINSK, December 5. /TASS/. Belarus may enforce its response measures to the West’s sanctions after this weekend, Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said on Sunday.
"Naturally, we will look at decisions to be announced within days, most likely, immediately after this weekend," he said in an interview with the Belarus-1 television channel.
"We have never attacked anyone. But once an economic or hybrid war has been unleashed against us, naturally, these actions will not remain unanswered," he stressed, adding that response measures "will be absolutely appropriate."
"It will be just a part of such measures. We are not planning to use the entire arsenal, although we have elaborated our response. And subsequent measures will not be asymmetric, as we have said. These will be symmetric measures," he warned.
"We are not ideal. We have problems. We know our pain points. But whatever difficult the situation might be, we will cope with it," he stressed.
The European Union enforced the fifth package of anti-Belarusian sanctions on December 2. The sanctions cover 17 individuals and 11 organizations. The US Department of the Treasury also imposed restrictions on Belarus’ public debt securities and banned operations with the country’s new promissory notes with a maturity of more than 90 days issued after December 2. Apart from that, 20 individuals, 12 legal entities and three aircraft were backlisted in connection with the migration crisis and in the light of allegations about the clampdown on civil freedoms. The United Kingdom and Canada also announced extra sanctions against Belarus.
Meanwhile, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said at a meeting of the OSCE top diplomats that his country was being punished with sanctions because it has demonstrated "the dark side of European democracy.".