Trenin: If a country is not going to give up, then sanctions make it stronger

On November 1, the main topic of the II Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security was economic security.

This is when, on the one hand, they talk about sustainable development goals, while on the other, they introduce a whole bunch of illegal sanctions. They slow down this very sustainable development.

Experts discuss the question: are unilateral coercive measures a carrot or a stick? After all, despite, and perhaps thanks to, we are becoming stronger. We are strengthening technological sovereignty.

Dmitry Trenin, political scientist (Russia):

"In fact, sanctions work primarily and most effectively against those countries that are ready to give up. Neither Russia nor Belarus belong to these countries. If a country is not going to give up, then sanctions make it stronger. But this requires great efforts, and this is associated with painful processes." "There is nothing good in sanctions. This is a wrong, vicious policy, which, in my opinion, should be condemned," says Vladimir Orlov, founder and director of the international club "Trialogue", professor at MGIMO (Russia). But thanks to the fact that they are putting pressure on us, they are trying to cut off some of our opportunities, including in those technologies where we may not yet be as strong as we would like, we are mobilizing our own resources, our own economy, our own creativity, we are mobilizing those connections that exist both in our countries inside and within the Union State, within the Eurasian economic space. In the long term, this is a matter that helps us".