Фото: пресс-служба Лукашенко
During a visit to the Vierkhniadzvinsk District on October 16, Aliaksandr Lukashenka once again addressed the incident on the Belarusian-Latvian border and accused Latvia of staging a provocation.
“The situation here is particularly tense. These small states, although we are not a giant state either, are behaving arrogantly. They provoke major countries, such as Germany, France, Poland and the United Kingdom, and push them into this situation,” Lukashenka said.
Lukashenka reiterated that border operations could not take place without his knowledge and therefore claimed that the incident on the Latvian border had been a provocation by Latvia.
“Recently, there were provocations on the border with the Latvians, with claims that you had transferred some migrants there. Someone was wearing a mask, their beard was not visible, and so on. I started questioning the military and border guards: ‘How could this happen?’ They said: ‘No, we did not conduct any such operations.’ They could not have been carried out without my knowledge. We did not do it. Who did? They did. They staged it, filmed the footage with their own people and leaked it to the media.
Why? We have always lived in peace. Latvians were not strangers to us. But look at how they are behaving. That is why we must always be prepared for this, just in case. Everyone must take up arms if, God forbid, war breaks out. Everyone,” Lukashenka said.
Several days ago, he had already accused Latvia of staging a provocation. In his view, Riga organised it to obtain money from the European Union.
On October 6, Latvia reported a provocation on its border with Belarus. Initially, people dressed in black, with their faces concealed by masks and allegedly carrying weapons, pushed a group of migrants towards the Latvian side. Later, people dressed in the same way crossed the border, damaged a distribution cabinet, stole surveillance cameras and returned to Belarusian territory. A few days later, a video appeared online in the name of an organisation calling itself “Black Rus”, which claimed responsibility for the incident.