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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, whose re-election has been contested for three weeks, has threatened to ban the transit of European exports to Russia if the EU imposes sanctions on the case.
The Belarusian head of state made these threats during a visit to a dairy in the east of the country on Friday.
He also threatened to boycott Lithuanian ports, an EU member state.
“I have asked the government to present a proposal to redirect all trade flows from Lithuanian ports to other ports,” he said, according to the official Belarusian news agency Belta. “Let’s see how he handles this.”
“They got rich and forgot who Belarus is. They thought they could scare us with missiles and tanks. Well, let’s see who is afraid! We will show them what the sanctions mean,” Lukashenko threatened.
Freight transiting the landlocked Belarus accounts for almost one third of Lithuania’s rail and port traffic.
Belarus, an important route for EU goods and Russian energy
This former Soviet republic is also an important overland route both for European products destined for Russia and for Europe’s energy supply.
All Russian exports go through Belarus through the Drujba pipeline.
Lukashenko, facing an unprecedented challenge, in his opinion financed by the Western powers, ordered the army to prepare for battle.
Vladimir Putin announced on Thursday the establishment of a “reserve police force” that could jump to the aid of Lukashenko, who has been in power for 26 years.
EU foreign ministers trying to pressure Minsk to hold new presidential elections on Thursday drew up a list of 20 Belarusians to sanction.
