Status: 07/06/2021 7:30 p.m.
As a reaction to the sanctions against his country, the Belarusian ruler Lukashenko is threatening the EU. In the future, he will simply let refugees through en masse to the European Union. But she doesn’t want to be intimidated.
The Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has threatened Europe and Germany with large numbers of refugees from countries like Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. “We will not stop anyone,” said Lukashenko at a government meeting. People are traveling from war zones to “warm and comfortable Europe”, and workers are needed in Germany, he said.
The movement of goods is prohibited
At the same time, Lukashenko announced that he would no longer allow goods to pass through Belarus to Russia and China. “Do you remember Skoda and Nivea and so on? We said to them: people, thank you and goodbye!” Said Lukashenko in front of ministers. In a first step, the Belarusian market was closed. In a second step, the movement of goods through the country will now be banned. “That’s exactly how you have to deal with the Germans. Let them deliver their goods to Russia and China via Finland. Or via the Ukraine – there are good roads – and deliver their goods there.”
EU not “naive”
EU Council President Charles Michel reacted: The EU is not “naive” and “not intimidated”. Michel blamed the leadership in Belarus for the growing number of migrants who have been crossing the border into Lithuania for weeks. There is “actually the suspicion” that Minsk had a hand in it, said Michel during a joint visit with the Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte in the border town of Medininkai.
Lithuania has reported an increase in the number of migrants coming across the border from Belarus since June. According to the Lithuanian border guards on Tuesday, 131 migrants were picked up within 24 hours, most of them from the Middle East and Africa.
The Lithuanian government is a sharp critic of Lukashenko. In addition, the EU and NATO member states have taken in many activists persecuted in Belarus, including opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya.
The EU has imposed numerous sanctions
The EU imposed numerous sanctions for the suppression of dissenters in Belarus and in response to the presidential election last year, which was believed to be falsified. The punitive measures of the European Union and the USA put the ex-Soviet republic under massive pressure. Russian President Vladimir Putin had repeatedly assured Lukashenko of support. Belarus has been economically dependent on Russia for a long time and has billions in debt.