A new “Iron Curtain” is being drawn across Europe, this time by Western powers seeking to cut off Russia and Belarus over the conflict in Ukraine. While meeting his Belarusian counterpart in Minsk on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the EU destroyed all of the relations with Moscow it had been building for decades, practically overnight.
The foreign minister of Belarus, Vladimir Makei, said “The Iron Curtain is now being erected by Westerners themselves.” He clarified he was referring not just to the severance of political and economic contact, but to the physical barrier erected along the Poland-Belarus border.
Makei said the isolationism was one-sided, as Belarus continues to advocate for dialogue with the West and seek diplomatic solutions to problems.
“It is practically already up,” Lavrov agreed, adding that Western countries “are only doing it carefully, so as not to pinch anything off, but the process is underway.”