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On Tuesday, Asta Andrijauskienė, the Charge d’Affaires of Lithuania, was summoned before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in Minsk.
Representatives of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said this measure would remain in force until the abolition of “hostile and confrontational Lithuanian initiatives towards Belarus,” the Russian news agency Interfax reported, citing an official Minsk report.
According to him, A. Andrijauskienė was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “for systematic hostile actions by Lithuania, seriously violating the friendly neighborhood agreement and cooperation between the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Lithuania.”
Among other things, Minsk noted that the Belarusian Democratic Representation, accredited by the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry on Monday as categorically unacceptable, granted official status to the team of Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlan Cichanouskaya who works in Vilnius.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry stated that “such actions, when illegal structures are given supposedly official status, create a parallel reality.”
Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Mantas Adomėnas told LRT television that the downsizing of the Lithuanian diplomatic mission by leaving an employee in charge of consular affairs means the actual closure of the embassy. According to him, Lithuania will retaliate as early as Wednesday.
On Monday, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry accredited the Democratic Representation of Belarus. It is led by Sviatlana Cichanouskaya, who ran in last August’s presidential elections with authoritarian President Aliaksandr Lukashenko.
The Belarusian opposition and western countries do not recognize Lukashenko as a legitimately elected president.
S. Cichanouskaja, who came to Lithuania, established an office in Vilnius.
He said that the status granted to the office by the Foreign Ministry was “an important step towards the delegitimization of the Lukashenko regime and the approval of the new Belarusian majority.”
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