Lithuania considers closing border with Russia
Agnė Bilotaitė, Lithuania’s Minister of the Interior, has not ruled out the possibility of closing the border with Russia.
Source: European Pravda, citing Bilotaitė in an interview with Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT
Quote: "We had a meeting with the commander of the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service, and together with our team we discussed not only closing the border with Belarus, but also other options, including closing the border with Russia, as there may be various threats, and we must be ready."
Details: At the same time, Bilotaitė added that it is now difficult to say whether the border with Russia will be automatically closed if Lithuania completely closes the border with Belarus.
"As of now, I have to say that we have no real threats, but we see that there are certain risks, and various provocations may happen," Bilotaitė said.
Background:
- As of 18 August, the Lithuanian government will temporarily close two out of six Belarus border crossings.
- Rustamas Liubajevas, commander of the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service, spoke in favour of closing more than two checkpoints on the border with Belarus.
- Poland and the Baltic States are preoccupied with border security after hundreds of Wagner Group mercenaries arrived in Belarus in July at the invitation of the self-proclaimed Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko. There has also been a rise in border crossings by illegal migrants, who are being aided by Belarusian law enforcement forces.
- Poland and the Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) are discussing the possibility of completely closing the border with Belarus if the situation so requires, and plan to finalise the steps late in August.
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