On July 29, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko appointed Mikhail Kostechko to serve as the new general director of the country’s main oil products trader, Belorusskaya Neftyanaya Kompaniya (BNK), and ordered him to maintain foreign market share regardless of the activity of the “Western scumbags”. Undoubtedly, Lukashenko was referring to the sanctions recently imposed by the United States, European Union and the United Kingdom that had significantly affected Belarus’s oil sector. The Belarusian side is experimenting with many different actions to try to mitigate the effects of these restrictive measures; however, it seems it will not be able to fully circumvent the international penalties. This is particularly the case because the Western sanctions continue to be expanded, as was illustrated on August 9, when the US, Canadian and UK governments imposed further sanctions packages on the one-year anniversary of the start of the Belarusian political crisis.
OP-ED
Mateusz Kubiak: Western sanctions and Belarusian oil industry
A general view the Mozyr oil refinery some 300 km southof Minsk in Mozyr on Jan. 4, 2013.
