The head of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry Gabrielus Landsbergis said that Belarus allegedly threatens Lithuania with the smuggling of radioactive materials and drugs.
He said this, speaking at a meeting of the council of the ruling party "Union of the Fatherland - Christian Democrats of Lithuania", of which he is chairman.
“Lukashenka is threatening to smuggle radioactive materials into Lithuania, smuggle drugs through Lithuania,” the TASS minister quoted as saying.
According to Landsbergis, the actions of Belarus are instruments of a hybrid war, which Minsk is allegedly waging against Vilnius.
“A month and a half ago, such a tool was a hijacked plane, which was forced to land in Minsk.
Today they are migrants.
He (President of Belarus Alexander Lukasheno. -
RT
) can still come up with some new tools, "said the head of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry.
Gabrielius Landsbergis is not the first time to make such statements.
So, on July 12, at a meeting of EU foreign ministers, Landsbergis called on the European Union to introduce new sanctions against Belarus, which he accused of using illegal migrants against his country as a "political weapon".
“Belarus uses illegal migrants as a political weapon.
This should not go unanswered.
We call on the EU to adopt the fifth package of sanctions against the Lukashenka regime, ”the Lithuanian minister demanded.
Belarusian front
Recall that relations between Belarus and the EU countries in general and Lithuania in particular worsened in May 2021 amid the incident with the Ryanair aircraft.
The flight en route from Athens to Vilnius was forced to land at the Minsk airport.
After the plane landed, the Belarusian security forces removed from the flight one of the creators of the NEXTA Telegram channel recognized as extremist in the republic, Roman Protasevich.
He was detained and pleaded guilty to involvement in organizing mass riots in the republic.
This incident became the reason for the introduction of economic sectoral sanctions by the EU against Belarus.
Earlier, in 2020, several more sanctions packages were introduced against Minsk due to the presidential elections and the subsequent opposition protests.
In response, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that in the face of continuing political pressure on the country from the West, Belarus is not obliged to protect the EU from illegal immigrants or smuggling.
He reaffirmed his position at the end of June, during a speech at a ceremony dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.
“Today they howled.
Ah, Belarusians do not protect them.
Thousands and thousands of illegal migrants rushed to Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.
They demand from us to protect them from smuggling, from drugs.
A signal is heard from across the Atlantic: help, as it was before, stop nuclear materials so that they do not end up in Europe.
I just want to ask, are you out there, crazy at all?
You unleashed a hybrid war against us and demand that we defend you, as before? ”Lukashenka said.
The President of Belarus said that methodical and collective pressure from Western countries was organized against his country.
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko
RIA News
© Victor Tolochko
“Destroy, trying to kill our economy and expect us to spend hundreds of millions of dollars, as before, to protect your geopolitical interests?
Only madmen can think so and count on our support.
We fight against this evil as best we can.
If you want us to fight, as before, take steps in this direction, and do not try to strangle us.
It is futile, ”Lukashenka stressed.
Lithuanian traditions
It is worth noting that Lithuania has been pursuing a confrontational policy towards Belarus for many years, and senior EU officials regularly criticize Minsk.
Back in 2005, Valdas Adamkus, who was then President of Lithuania, stated that Lukashenka did not allow his people to become Europeans, and that Belarusian troops could allegedly attack Lithuania.
But the struggle of Vilnius goes not only in the political direction.
Thus, the Lithuanian side has consistently opposed the construction and commissioning of the Belarusian nuclear power plant.
Despite the fact that the implementation of the project was approved by the IAEA, the Lithuanian parliament declared the BelNPP a threat to national security and in 2017 legally banned the purchase, as well as the export transmission of its electricity through its power grids.
At the same time, Vilnius actively calls on the other Baltic states and the EU to boycott the Belarusian project.
Opposition protest in Minsk in September 2020
Reuters
© Tut.By
In addition, for many years Vilnius has actively supported the Belarusian opposition, and this support has intensified after the presidential elections in Belarus in August 2020.
Let us remind you that according to the Central Election Commission, Alexander Lukashenko won them, having received more than 80% of the votes.
However, the opposition of Belarus announced fraudulent elections, after which mass protests and clashes with the police began in the country.
Opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who received 10% of the vote and declared herself the winner of the elections, left for Lithuania shortly after the start of the protests.
In September, the Lithuanian Sejm recognized Tikhanovskaya as the elected President of Belarus.
Lukashenka then accused Lithuania and other countries of the region of interfering in the affairs of his country and urged Vilnius to deal with its problems.
In early July this year, Tihanovskaya's office in Vilnius announced that it had received diplomatic status.
According to the opposition, Lithuania is "the first EU country to take this step."
In response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus summoned the Charge d'Affaires of Lithuania Astu Andijauskienė and informed her of the decision to reduce to a minimum the diplomatic representation of her country in Belarus due to systematic unfriendly actions.
The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry’s step to grant diplomatic status to Tikhanovskaya’s office in Minsk was called "insignificant in terms of its international legal grounds and consequences."
“Giving the obviously illegitimate structures of an imaginary official status will remain an illusory attempt to form a parallel reality,” the Belarusian foreign ministry said.
Over the past year, there has been active pressure on Belarus from the pro-American members of the EU, and Lithuania wants to stand out among them with its confrontational policy towards Minsk, political analyst Alexander Asafov said in a conversation with RT.
“In general, the Lublin Triangle (Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine) and other similar alliances, in which the Baltic countries and Ukraine are mainly members, have no real political weight.
These are amorphous associations, they are united only by loyalty to the United States and, accordingly, joint work against those whom they consider opponents of the American model of the world order: Russia, Belarus and a number of other countries, ”the expert said.
According to Asafov, the Baltic countries, Ukraine and Poland, which have rather problem economies, are strengthening anti-Belarusian and anti-Russian rhetoric in order to exchange it for some obvious financial or military preferences.
In turn, Oleg Nemensky, a leading researcher at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, believes that statements like those made by the head of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry Gabrielus Landsbergis are designed to create the impression of a threat coming from Belarus that can frighten its own citizens.
“The task that the Lithuanian leadership has set itself is to intimidate its people with a threat allegedly emanating from Belarus.
For this, the concept of hybrid warfare is used, which assumes that war is waged in all spheres of society.
Western countries use such ideas in order to militarize all aspects of life and, as a result, impose strict discipline on society in all spheres, especially in the information sphere, ”said the interlocutor of RT.
Landsbergis's statement is absurd, since it is Lithuania that is pursuing a really hostile policy towards Belarus, justifying this by rejection of its political system, Nemensky stressed.
“Lithuania, like other Baltic countries, as well as Poland and the Czech Republic, is a“ soldier ”of the Cold War. These states are trying to earn money from geopolitical processes by using pressure on the irritants of the United States, in particular Russia and Belarus, focused on the Russian Federation. In this case, Lithuania is trying to be the most active player in this process, therefore in every possible way demonstrates such a creative approach, ”the political scientist concluded.