Lukashenka Blackmails Europe by Closing Borders; President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that his country could impose economic sanctions in response to the actions of the authorities of the Baltic states, which imposed a ban on entry into their territory of 32 Belarusian officials, including Lukashenka himself. According to the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian leaderships, blacklisted Belarusian politicians organized massive fraud in the presidential elections in Belarus on August 9, and also supported the violent suppression of peaceful protests.
According to Lukashenka, the Baltic officials acted on instructions from other European countries. The President believes that the “hardened” states are afraid of retaliatory actions, and therefore they gave the command to the weaker ones.
“They were given the command “face”, and they blathered from under the fence. I appreciate it this way,” Lukashenka said. He also added that he could close the borders near Brest and Grodno, which would complicate the transportation of goods from Europe to the east.
Earlier, Lukashenka announced an instruction to remove the Belarusian cargo traffic from the ports of Lithuania.
Recall that on August 9, presidential elections were held in Belarus. According to the CEC of the republic, more than 80% of the voters supported the incumbent leader Alexander Lukashenko. For the main competitor – Svetlana Tikhanovskaya – about 10% of voters cast their votes. The opposition has not recognized the results of the elections and holds regular demonstrations. The largest rallies are held on Sundays in Minsk and gather hundreds of thousands of participants. Lukashenka’s victory was also not recognized by many countries of the world, including the EU states, Canada and the UK. EU countries are going to impose personal sanctions against officials involved in electoral fraud and forceful actions against protesters.
Some countries offer assistance in the relocation of Belarusian citizens. In particular, Latvia has prepared a special program for the transfer of business from Belarus.