Stadler Rail, a Swiss train maker contracted to produce 15 electric and battery-powered trains for Lithuania, will not use any parts made at its factory in Minsk, according to Lithuanian Transport Minister Marius Skuodis.
The Swiss company is already pulling out of Belarus and is no longer producing anything there, he added.
“Not a single part produced [in Minsk] will be used for our trains,” Skuodis said during the Government Hour in the parliament on Thursday. “Every transaction is assessed by the commission [the government Commission for Coordination of Protection of Objects of Importance to Ensuring National Security], and the deal for the purchase of the trains was allowed.”
The Swiss company is already leaving Minsk, the minister said.
“As far as I know, production is no longer taking place there, the company has withdrawn or is in the process of withdrawing,” he said.
Opposition MP Algirdas Butkevičius earlier raised doubts about the winner of the passenger train tender launched by Lietuvos Geležinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways, LTG), the state-owned railway company. According to Butkevičius, the Swiss group not only has a company in Minsk, but its CEO is on good terms with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
LTG Link, LTG’s passenger division, plans to buy 15 new electric and battery-powered trains from Stadler Rail’s Polish subsidiary Stadler Polska for 226.5 million euros, under the contract signed in Vilnius on Wednesday.
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