Lithuania’s MFA says it couldn’t assist citizens in trouble in Belarus

As agencies in Lithuania continue offering trips to Belarusian sanatoriums, the Foreign Ministry warns that Lithuanian citizens are still advised against travelling to the neighbouring country and that it has little opportunity to assist them there in case of need.

According to Deputy Foreign Minister Julius Pranevičius, Lithuania currently has only one diplomat in Belarus.

“We also see situations where people from Lithuania and other countries [whose governments] openly criticise the Belarusian regime are detained, or their ability to move around is otherwise restricted. And this can be used as a kind of tool to put pressure on those countries,” Pranevičius told LRT RADIO on Thursday.

“After the restrictions imposed by Belarus, we currently have only one diplomat in our embassy, so there are probably not many opportunities [to help] and we have to be aware that these resources are very limited and our opportunities to help in some kind of crisis are not very big,” the deputy minister said.

LRT RADIO has reported that ads on social media are offering trips from Lithuania to Belarusian sanatoriums. The trips go via Latvia and the organisers claim that Lithuanian citizens are perfectly safe in Belarus.

Lietuvos ir Baltarusijos pasienis | E. Blažio / LRT nuotr.

MP Giedrimas Jeglinskas, chairman of the parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defence (NSGK), says that during trips to Belarus, Lithuanian citizens can be recruited to “work against Lithuania”.

“The Belarusian special services decide whether you are interesting or not. You may think that you are just selling vegetables at the market, but again, the decision on how to use you, how to use this for geopolitical blackmail, will be made by the Belarusian special services,” the politician told LRT RADIO.

Analyst Marius Laurinavičius told LRT RADIO he believes that organisers of trips to Belarus “make a business out of a threat to national security” and should be stopped.

The Foreign Ministry recommends that Lithuanian citizens should refrain from travelling to Belarus and that those who are currently in the country should leave immediately.