In Belarus, they called the goal of possible Western sanctions "to bite Russia"

By imposing sanctions on Belarus, Western countries want to bite RUSSIA, Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said at a meeting with his Russian counterpart Mikhail Mishustin, TASS reports.

“I want to emphasize that at the same time [Western countries] want to bite Russia,” Golovchenko said.

As an example, he cited the words of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, who announced plans to ban the transit of Russian gas through Belarus.

Western countries decided to impose sanctions against Belarus after the Belarusian security forces arrested Roman Protasevich, co-founder of the Nexta TELEGRAM channel recognized in the country as extremist, and his girlfriend, Russian Sofya Sapega, on May 23. Before that, Belarusian air traffic controllers told the pilots of the Ryanair plane, on which Protasevich and Sapieha flew from Athens to Vilnius, that the ship was mined, and the liner was accompanied by a Belarusian Air Force fighter. As a result, the plane landed in MINSK.