Expert on how the West uses food security issue to undermine public sentiment

Large corporations in the collective West are trying to establish control over the most fertile lands and water resources, and there are several reasons for that – as stated by an expert at the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies, Aleksei Avdonin, during the Minsk-Moscow Union State live streaming

Discussing the relationship between economic growth and food security in modern conditions, the expert explained why this topic is becoming increasingly relevant worldwide, “We know that velvet revolutions or protests are often caused by the shortage of certain food product in stores. Strong protests could follow the spread of destructive content by the West. We know that such technologies were used to break up the Soviet Union, to create conflicts in the post-Soviet space. Therefore, now we must pay increased attention to the topic of providing our citizens with everything they need, create our own processing plants, and increase the productivity of the agricultural sector. Mechanisation will lead to an impetus for the development of our industry: machine tool construction, tractor building, and automotive industry. In turn, this will require significant labour resources and an increase in the level of education of personnel – resulting in appropriate investments in the university education. By doing this, we will be able to increase the pace of economic growth in Belarus and Russia and at the same time to attract other CIS countries to our union.”

The expert also named other reasons for the growing interest from the West in the topic of food security, “We see how the climate is changing, and it is becoming more difficult to grow agricultural products. This naturally leads to the problem of hunger in different regions, and as a result to the shortage of food. At present, large corporations of the collective West are trying to establish control over the most fertile lands and water resources. With this in view, the CIS countries and the post-Soviet republics are becoming a tasty morsel for them.”

In this regard, according to Mr. Avdonin, increasing the level of mechanisation of agriculture and productivity of farmers is becoming a priority for Belarus and Russia. “Belarus, with its 30+ years of experience in agricultural production, can transfer its knowledge to the CIS partners and, most importantly, to create a single market for food security, displacing foreign corporations and preventing foreigners from entering it and making money on it. In this case, we will have a huge market, and significant investments will head not only to Belarus and Russia, but also to other CIS countries, thereby strengthening the economic basis of the region,” he explained.