The sanctions imposed by the West against Russia in response to the annexation of Crimea are “complete nonsense and nonsense,” “chatter,” said Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko at a meeting with the governor of the Kaluga region Anatoly Artamonov on Friday in Minsk.

“The freak on earth has not yet been born who would not understand what Russia is, and what sanctions are, and how they will turn out,” RIA Novosti quotes Lukashenko as saying . “The West is not capable of anything today, and we must proceed from this,” the president said, recalling that Belarus has been under Western sanctions for two decades and advising the Russian governor not to worry.

According to Lukashenko, sanctions for Russia will turn out to be beneficial and will help “strengthen internally” and bring together “the whole people.”

The President of Belarus also stated that he was coordinating all issues related to Russia with Moscow, ITAR-TASS reports . “No matter what I do today, talking with Ukraine, with the West, with the East, etc., if we concern Russia, I do not take a single step without the consent of the leadership of the Russian Federation,” Lukashenko said.

In March, due to the annexation of Crimea by Russia, the United States and the European Union introduced financial and visa sanctions against a number of Russians. The US sanctions included Kremlin and government officials, parliamentarians, as well as Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin (No. 9 in the ranking of the 25 most expensive top managers in Russia according to Forbes, total compensation - $15 million) and businessmen Gennady Timchenko , Yuri Kovalchuk , Arkady Rotenberg and Boris Rotenberg . In addition, the United States imposed sanctions on Rossiya Bank, controlled by Kovalchuk. The EU sanctions list includes officials, parliamentarians, military commanders and TV presenter Dmitry Kiselyov.

Lukashenko called sanctions against Russia “chatter”