The retaliatory measures in response to sanctions must be effective, but the government will not shoot itself in the foot, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at the meeting with senior members of the Council of Ministers on 18 January, BelTA has learned.

The government submitted a draft decree to the head of state that suggests introducing a number of changes to appraisal procedures, as well as to the sale of property by owners from unfriendly countries. “Currently, hundreds of organizations in Belarus have the right to evaluate various material assets. Only highly professional experts who can provide high-quality services should work in this industry, just like in other sectors of the economy. These people should have impeccable reputation, the state and people should be able to trust their opinions. Only an objective assessment allows making the right managerial decisions, especially when it comes to assessing the market value of state property (aka people's property) or future budget revenues,” Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized. According to the president, these changes should not compromise the transparency and controllability of the appraisal work. “One more thing. The government suggests a more flexible procedure (I don’t know how much more flexible this can be) for the sale of property by foreigners from unfriendly states whenever it is possible. It is never possible. The government agrees that it is impossible, with some exceptions. Let’s listen what kind of exceptions they suggest,” the head of state noted. “Of course, in order to shield off our economy from the lawlessness of the West in the face of mounting sanctions, we have adopted a number of fundamental documents, and today not a single shareholder or owner who has the citizenship of an unfriendly country can sell off property without getting a special permission from the government and paying a fee to the budget; this way we make sure that our economy will not be stripped of its key assets,” the head of state remarked. “We have agreed: we do not sell any assets to anyone, we do not transfer them if foreigners who have property, enterprises, companies here leave our market as a result of sanctions or for some other reason. As I have said, just beat it - we will sort it out on our own. And, as in the case of McDonald’s, we have figured out very well how to do it: these restaurants retained a stable flow of customers,” noted Aleksandr Lukashenko. “Therefore, I would like to discuss in detail the feasibility of proposals prepared by the government on permits for the sale of property by foreigners,” the president said.