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Lithuania's border guards are patrolling the border with Belarus: only two of six border crossings remain open.
Photo: Mindaugas Kulbis/dpa
Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda has rejected criticism from Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tichanowskaja about the closure of two more border crossings with neighboring Belarus.
»The iron curtain must be erected because sanctions have been imposed on Belarus.
To ensure that these sanctions are not circumvented and that smuggling, which is also a problem, is curbed, appropriate measures are needed and these have been taken in a timely manner," Nauseda said in Vilnius on Thursday, according to the BNS agency.
Only two border crossings remain open
Lithuania will close the two checkpoints Lavoriskes and Raigardas on March 1st until further notice for security reasons.
This means that only two of the six crossings along the almost 680 kilometer long border between Lithuania and the authoritarian Belarus will remain open.
This would create “iron curtains,” said Tikhanovskaya, who lives in exile in Lithuania.
She warned that only long-term ruler Alexander Lukashenko would benefit from closing the borders and isolating Belarusians.
Nauseda replied that the “iron curtain” was not being erected by Lithuania, but by Lukashenko in Belarus.
“He's been putting up this curtain for four years now.
Because the elections were illegitimate and because basic human rights were and continue to be violated on a large scale," said the Lithuanian head of state.
What's worse is that Belarus is becoming a mere pawn of Russia and nothing more than a bridgehead for hostile actions against Ukraine.
Lukashenko has ruled the country since 1994 and was declared the winner of the presidential election again in August 2020.
The opposition, however, saw his challenger Tichanowskaja as the real winner.
After the election there were weeks of mass protests, which were brutally suppressed by the power apparatus.
muk/dpa