Lithuania would continue sanctioning the Belarusian state-owned fertiliser maker Belaruskali even if the United States were to lift restrictions, says Mindaugas Petrauskas, a former deputy director of the Financial Crime Investigation Service.
“If the Americans removed potash fertilizers (produced by Belaruskali) from their sanctions list but the EU kept them, we would still maintain [the sanctions],” Petrauskas, now head of financial crime prevention at Amlyze, a company specialising in payment analytics and anti-money laundering solutions, told LRT RADIO.
“In Lithuania, EU and UN sanctions are mandatory. Sanctions imposed by other countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, or Ukraine, aren’t obligatory – compliance is only recommended,” he added.
According to Petrauskas, Belarus appealed to the General Court of the European Union last year to have the sanctions against Belaruskali lifted, but the court upheld the sanctions as lawful.
Belaruskali’s products had been transported from the Belarusian border to the seaport of Klaipėda for over a decade, but transit shipments stopped in February 2022 after the Lithuanian state-owned railway company terminated its long-term contract with the Belarusian producer.
The move followed the Lithuanian government’s decision, based on the US sanctions, that the contract was not in line with its national security interests. In early March 2022, the EU imposed its own sanctions on the Belarusian company.
In their latest National Threat Assessment report published on Friday, Lithuania’s intelligence agencies said it is very likely that Belarus expects to be able to resume potash fertiliser exports through Lithuania, which is why Belaruskali and its representatives continue efforts to maintain business ties in the country.
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