Belarusian MFA calls EU's sanctions stupid and not original
Belarusian MFA's spokesman Andrej Savinykh has said in an interview to "Moscow's Echo" that the demonstration on December 19 was dispersed accurately and called the sanctions which the European Union planned to impose on the Belarusian regime stupid. However, he promised that the counter-measures will be adequate to the contents of the sanctions and rather clever.
Andrej Savinykh has claimed that the suggestion that the World Ice Hockey Championship-2014 should not be held in Belarus while there are political prisoners in the country, adopted in the European Parliament's resolution, is a stupid decision.
"You do realise, that the EU has no influence over the Olympic Committee. Secondly, sports has never been a part of politics, but always stood beyond it. There have never been any problems connected with the arrival to the Olympics of the persons who represented the countries which were not even in friendly relations with the EU", - Savinykh said.
As for the visa ban against Lukashenka and other officials, Savinykh said it would be rather non-original.
"You should agree that it is not an original step, I would even say, an old one. Such measures were taken 5-10 years ago. What effect did they have? None." - Savinykh said.
"The discussion in itself is beyond the rational. There was an illegal demonstration in Minsk. It was dispersed by the police rather accurately. What do we have now? We have a non-proportional emotional reaction." - added the Belarusian MFA's spokesman.
Andrej Savinykh has claimed that the suggestion that the World Ice Hockey Championship-2014 should not be held in Belarus while there are political prisoners in the country, adopted in the European Parliament's resolution, is a stupid decision.
"You do realise, that the EU has no influence over the Olympic Committee. Secondly, sports has never been a part of politics, but always stood beyond it. There have never been any problems connected with the arrival to the Olympics of the persons who represented the countries which were not even in friendly relations with the EU", - Savinykh said.
As for the visa ban against Lukashenka and other officials, Savinykh said it would be rather non-original.
"You should agree that it is not an original step, I would even say, an old one. Such measures were taken 5-10 years ago. What effect did they have? None." - Savinykh said.
"The discussion in itself is beyond the rational. There was an illegal demonstration in Minsk. It was dispersed by the police rather accurately. What do we have now? We have a non-proportional emotional reaction." - added the Belarusian MFA's spokesman.
