Translated material
Beer putsch
Belarus tightens customs controls on the border with Russia
The Belarusian authorities seem to have decided to give a symmetrical response to the actions of Russia, which has banned the import of dairy products from its neighbor into its territory since June 13. Yesterday, President Alexander Lukashenko convened the Security Council of the republic, at which he urgently demanded that all measures be taken to protect the country from “unfriendly actions” of Russia. “In connection with the ongoing failure by officials of Russian state bodies to fulfill their international obligations, the President of the Republic of Belarus has instructed the State Secretariat of the Security Council to take the necessary measures to predict possible further actions aimed at causing economic damage to our country and ensuring the national security of Belarus,” he said Head of the Legal Department of the State Secretariat of the Security Council Andrey Shved.One of the first such measures was the strengthening of customs control on the border with Russia as early as nine in the morning today. Minsk does not hide the fact that such actions are a reaction to the actions of their Russian colleagues. “These steps will be completely similar to the actions that the Russian side, represented by the Federal Customs Service, has been practicing for many years,” said State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus Yuri Zhadobin. At the same time, the head of the Security Council emphasized that tightening controls would only be a response “to the customs control that is carried out on the Russian side.”
Yesterday it became clear that the next victim of the conflict between Moscow and Minsk would be, along with Belarusian milk, Russian beer. The State Control Committee of Belarus advocated the establishment of a special beer importer in the country. “Inspections by the State Control Committee of Belarus have shown that about 20% of Russian beer imported into Belarus enters the country through shadow schemes. The budget of Belarus is incurring billions of losses,” said Elena Masurnovskaya, head of the department for control over the turnover of excisable goods of the State Control Committee of Belarus.