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“The foreign affairs ministry has requested the bank to apply restrictive measures and permission to dispose of funds exclusively for employee salaries and other needs related to the labor relationship,” the ministry’s press release reads.
The Foreign Ministry states that it believes that the funds can also be used to make social security contribution payments.
“We would like to point out that the funds can be used exclusively for the needs of the employees. However, before the end of the crackdown in Belarus, we will also seek long-term solutions for employees working in sanctioned Belarusian companies located in Lithuania.” Chancellor Gabrielius Landsbergis said in a press release.
When asked if Swedbank intends to comply with the ministry’s request, its representative Saulius Abraškevičius told BNS that the bank could not comment on details of customer relationships.
“The bank, in compliance with the law, cannot publicly comment on the details of its relationship with its clients,” said a bank spokesman.
Swedbank’s Belorus Sanitarium froze its accounts on December 18. The bank made the decision when the EU imposed sanctions on the Central Economic Board in the presidential administration of Belarus. This board is a shareholder of the sanatorium.
The mayor of Druskininkai, Ričardas Malinauskas, and the managers of the sanatorium criticized such a decision. According to them, almost 400 employees of the sanatorium, most of them Lithuanian, may lose income due to the freezing of sanctions. They criticized the central government for lack of support. R. Malinauskas says that a similar Belarusian sanatorium is operating in Jūrmala, Latvia, but its accounts have not been frozen.
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