Belarusian official proposes to "pave corridor" for transit through Lithuania

Pavel Muraveiko, First Deputy State Secretary of the Belarusian Security Council, believes that Minsk "has every reason" for aggression against Lithuania to ensure the transit of Belarusian goods.

Source: independent Belarusian media outlet Zerkalo, citing Muraveiko during an "ideological seminar" in Minsk, as reported by European Pravda

Details: The Vecherniy Minsk (Evening Minsk) newspaper cited a speech by the deputy head of the Belarusian Security Council in its 24 October issue. The newspaper released a compilation article based on the security official’s speech concerning the "situation" around Belarus and how the country is managing to develop under sanctions.

Muraveiko recalled, among other things, that Lithuania had stopped issuing tourist visas to Belarusians and closed some border crossings, which supposedly led to a collapse in transport movement. The military officer was particularly outraged by Lithuania's "blocking transit from Belarus".

This likely refers to the transit of goods through Lithuania to Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast via the so-called Suwałki Gap, as well as the transit and transhipment of Belarusian fertilisers in Lithuanian ports. These restrictions were introduced in February 2022, and Lithuania banned the transit and transhipment of oil products from Belarus a year earlier.

"Lithuania has effectively banned us from moving our goods across the border. Under all norms of international law, such a step is considered economic aggression. From the point of view of basic logic, we have every reason to use the force of arms to break through a corridor that is vital for us," said the Belarusian official.

Muraveiko believes that no one in the world would have condemned Belarus for such actions under other circumstances, but now Belarus will probably not risk "breaking through the corridor" due to "unprecedented pressure from the West".

The Suwałki Gap is a 100-kilometre-wide section of the Lithuanian-Polish border that borders Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast to the west and Belarus to the east. In a hypothetical war, it would be crucial for Russia to quickly seize the Suwałki Gap to cut off the NATO allies' land route to the Baltic states.

Lithuania and Poland had concerns over the corridor's security long before the full-scale invasion. The countries agreed to step up the protection of this border section in 2019.

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