In Lavoriškės, a Lithuanian village close to the border with Belarus, one can shop in two small grocery stores that have everything one could possibly need.
But it’s expensive here, says one woman leaving the shop. LRT.lt journalists came to Lavoriškės to find out whether locals still go shopping in Belarus.
“Most people go there. They go shopping once a month, that’s enough. Because the prices are lower,” the woman says.
Many now shop in Vilnius, like Vladislav, who lives in a village nearby. In the past, he also used to go to Belarus and says he remembers a time when travelling between the two countries was simpler.
“The produce is very high quality, very cheap [in Belarus]. But waiting in line for 20-30 hours? I waited for 24 hours a year ago. [...] In Belarus, cigarettes are cheaper, schnapps and groats are cheaper, and the quality is very good,” he says.
Travellers to Belarus are greeted with a warning that it is unsafe for Lithuanian citizens to go here and that they may be subject to interrogations and recruitment attempts by Belarusian special services. However, locals say they have experienced nothing of the sort.
“In our village, I have not heard of it. People live their lives. [...] It’s not worth going there in our age. Young people can go, but why wait at the border for 12 hours?” says Vanda, a pensioner from Lavoriškės.
A Belarusian driver, operating a bus between the two countries, says that half of the passengers are Lithuanians and half are Belarusians. They travel to visit their relatives or for work.
The bus is full of passengers with bags, but only Natalija, who lives in Vilnius, shows what’s inside hers. She is bringing home apples from a house in Belarus she inherited from her parents.
“I take care of that house; you cannot just leave it like that. There are good people, good neighbours. Nearby, there is the forest, the lake,” Natalija shares.
The woman says she doesn’t understand why it takes so long to travel to Belarus. She has not heard of any attempts by Belarusian services to recruit Lithuanian citizens.
“It’s the first time I heard about this. It is very safe, pleasant, quiet, peaceful, and green, and people are happy with their work,” says Natalija who is returning to Lithuania from Belarus.
Reasons for travelling
According to customs officials at the Lavoriškės border checkpoint, the reasons for travelling in both directions are diverse. Lithuanians go to Belarus for shopping or medical treatment, as well as to visit relatives and graves of loved ones.
For those living near the Belarusian border with Lithuania, it is popular to get a job in Vilnius as truck drivers. Work is the main reason why Belarusians travel to Lithuania, customs officials say.
“In the summertime, a lot of people go for holidays and others for shopping. They go to Lithuania, they go to Poland,” says Romualdas Šiaučiūnas, chief of the Lavoriškės border checkpoint.
The border guards at this checkpoint allow about 250 cars a day, both with Lithuanian and Belarusian registration plates, to cross into Belarus.
In August, the Tverečius and Šumskas checkpoints on Lithuania’s border with Belarus were closed, citing security reasons and the fight against smuggling. According to official data, the number of Lithuanians travelling to Belarus has halved since then.
On the day we arrived, there was a several-kilometres-long queue at the Lavoriškės checkpoint. Most of those waiting were transit trucks with Kaliningrad registration plates.
In September, the European Union also banned the entry of cars with Russian registration plates. According to customs officials, 4-5 such cars are trying to enter Lithuania through Lavoriškės checkpoint every day after the ban.
“People are often unhappy. We are an institution that works with restrictions. Of course, they react negatively, but we explain that if they don’t agree to turn around, we will confiscate their car and there will be an administrative penalty,” said Aušra Trapikaitė, the shift supervisor at the Lavoriškės border checkpoint.
According to Šiaučiūnas, customs officers do not see any major changes in the smuggling situation, but the closed Tverečius checkpoint did not have an X-ray system, so it must now be more difficult to smuggle illegal goods from Belarus to Lithuania.
Praise to Russia
Alexander, a truck driver from Kaliningrad is waiting in the queue at the Lavoriškės border checkpoint. In his words, he is carrying food “to the big Russia”. Sometimes, he has to wait for three days, he says and does not want to predict whether he will be able to cross the border today.
“There are fewer goods now because Lithuania doesn’t let them through, because of sanctions... There’s a problem with cargo,” Alexander says.
Another driver, Dmitry, is a Belarusian working in Lithuania. He approaches the LRT.lt journalists himself and promises to open up.
Apparently, when Dmitry filled in the questionnaire for a work permit in Lithuania, which includes questions about the war in Ukraine, among others, the filter did not work as promised.
The Belarusian driver makes no secret of the fact that he does not support Ukraine and that he thinks that Russia is defending its territory in Donbas. He also says he likes “old Lukashenko” because he is “holding firm” and strengthening and arming Belarus.
It is not entirely clear how working in Europe fits in with Dmitry’s value system.
“I like Europe because the salary comes from here. I can support my children and my family on it, but I don’t like Europe because there is all this gay stuff, chaos,” he says.
Of course, it is not easy to talk about politics a few metres away from the Belarusian border.
“What is the situation [in Belarus]? Not very good, let’s put it this way. [...] That’s why there’s such a big wave of people going to work in Lithuania, Poland,” says Maxim.
But those who took part in protests against the regime are being questioned at the border, says bus driver Sergey.
“It happens often. They ask questions, of course, they let you go, they don’t handcuff you, but... They also talk to those who have a Ukrainian passport,” he says.
Understaffed customs
We ask customs officials how their work has changed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and whether they feel threatened. Some have many years of experience and recall the attack on the Medininkai border checkpoint in July 1991, when seven border guards were killed by Russian forces.
“If we have to defend, we will defend. This would be the second time. We survived the first one, we defended, and now, if there are similar challenges, we will do the same,” says Šiaučiūnas, who worked at the Medininkai checkpoint at the time of the attack.
However, it seems that not everything depends on the dedication of the officers.
In September, a case of a customs officer killed in a car accident on his way home from work made headlines in Lithuania. Customs trade union representatives pointed to the heavy workload. As in other statutory organisations, customs are understaffed, with around 300 unfilled posts.
“Recently, sanctions on goods have been introduced, which has increased the workload. The other thing, which is probably the worst and has the biggest impact, is the shortage of officers,” Leokadija Daujotaitė, chair of the Customs Workers’ Trade Union, told LRT.lt.
“Imagine if three out of every ten officers who are supposed to be on shift come to work. [...] That is what happened in this case with the officer who was killed. There should have been three of them, but he was alone,” she added.
Shifts have been shortened, but this means that the commute to work is twice as frequent, with some officer having to travel more than 150 kilometres to get to their post.
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