Lithuania to Consider Freezing or Confiscating Belarusian Assets

Lithuania will consider the possibility of freezing or confiscating Belarusian assets. The issue will be discussed at a meeting of the State Defence Council to be held in the middle of the month, President Gitanas Nausėda said in an interview with LRT.

“We are currently discussing other issues that will be addressed at the next State Defence Council. First of all, what constitutes Belarusian assets and what options exist in this area — namely, simply freezing or confiscating Belarusian assets located in the Republic of Lithuania.

However, we must choose our strategy very clearly: do we follow Belarus’s call to resume political contacts and, so to speak, obediently follow this appeal, or do we look for solutions that will also affect Belarus’s own well-being?” he said.

Nausėda believes that by blocking Lithuanian hauliers’ trucks and insisting on negotiations, Minsk is trying to shift Lithuania’s position.

“Belarus does not need our businesspeople, nor does it need other intermediaries. It needs recognition of the results of the 2020 election and, specifically, the lifting of sanctions.

Any attempt on our part to reach out to the regime, as they call it, at the political level will end with a very simple and direct question: ‘Will you help us lift the sanctions on potash fertilisers?’

And in that case we will have to decide very quickly what Lithuania is doing and whether it is overturning everything we have done in recent years — speaking about values and about the fact that the Belarusian regime cooperates closely with Russia in the war in Ukraine. So will we have to forget all these principles at once and change them?” Nausėda said in response to a question on whether a business figure could act as a negotiator with the official Minsk.

The Lithuanian president was also asked whether there had been any signals from the United States about the possible lifting of sanctions on Belaruskali.

“Firstly, no, we have certainly not heard such direct appeals. We are trying to make our partners in the United States clearly understand that the same hybrid attack on Lithuania is taking place — the one carried out several years ago with the help of migrants — and that Lithuania cannot fail to respond. Therefore, the American side understands our problem.

Yes, they would like to contribute to a solution, but the question remains: at what price? The constant calls from the Belarusian side to begin consultations at the political level mean only one thing — not the mediation of some specific individual, but a clear seating at the negotiating table. Their vision is to talk about sanctions. And these are sanctions not imposed by Lithuania, but by the entire European Union — sanctions imposed for very, very serious reasons.

Has anything changed in this regard? Has Belarus become a less significant ally of Russia in the war against Ukraine? Nothing of the kind. Moreover, there is an escalation: tactical nuclear weapons are being deployed on the territory of Belarus, the ‘Oreshnik’ system may be deployed, and the territory of Belarus effectively serves as an unrestricted transit zone for Russian forces,” Nausėda said.

It should be noted that another Lithuanian politician, former prime minister Saulius Skvernelis, recently proposed using Belarusian assets in Lithuania to compensate hauliers for the value of their vehicles should they be confiscated in Belarus.