"First, contrary to all existing agreements, Moscow made this decision without placing Minks on notice, and it’s not the first case.  We came across a similar situation previous year, when Russia decided to restrict the access of the third countries through the border of Belarus and Russia."

Second, according to the Belarus Foreign Ministry, many would have an impression, that this brings to the restoration of full control of the Belarus-Russian border, which was abolished more than 20 years ago. “It contradicts to the fundamental principles of transparency of borders between Belarus and Russia. We want to emphasize, that this is not the case initiated by Belarus," reads the official statement of Minsk.