Łukašenka tells bankers to brace for more sanctions

February 7, BPN. All branches of the government should stand united to be able to “mobilize resources in crucial areas of sustainable economic development,” Alaksandr Łukašenka has told officials at the February 7 meeting focusing on the banking sector.

“The banks and the National Bank, as the regulator of the entire banking system, must play a key role here,” Łukašenka’s press office quoted him as saying.

Officials should not relax, he stressed. “Russia is being stuffed with additional sanctions and they [the West] will also pump us with more sanctions rather than just scare us in order to cut off the ways [for Russia] to circumvent them through us,” Łukašenka said.

The banking sector should be prepared for a rise of “new powerful currency unions with a new reserve currency,” he added.

Integration with Russia in the banking sector “should be beneficial to us,” Łukašenka said, noting that Belarus remains “almost the only country in the world that guarantees full repayment of deposits to the population” if a bank collapses.

Over the past few years, democratic countries have imposed sanctions on Belarus over human rights abuses and the country’s complicity in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.