Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė commented on the sentence handed down to Lithuanian citizen Miroslavas Trockis in Belarus and urged residents of the country to carefully weigh the risks of travelling there.
“We saw what happened to carriers, we see what is happening to citizens as well. We have repeatedly warned people to be careful, to assess all the risks several times and only then set off. Yes, the Belarusian regime is organised in such a way that no one can be safe in Belarus”, LRT quoted her as saying.
“We see arrests, we see unjustified arrests, and we are making every effort together with our strategic partners to ensure that as many political prisoners as possible return to freedom”, the prime minister added.
Asked whether this incident affects the possibility of dialogue with Minsk, Ruginienė replied that each side must do its homework.
“In developing dialogue, each side must do its homework. We have done our homework, we are ready, but we want to see exactly the same from the other side. As soon as the other side does its homework, then we can discuss it”, Ruginienė said.
As reported earlier, Miroslavas Trockis travelled to Belarus in autumn 2024 to visit relatives. On 11 March 2026, he was sentenced to 15 years in a high-security penal colony on charges of espionage and agent activity. Trockis lived in Vilnius and graduated from Mykolas Romeris University in 2011.
Open sources show that he maintained close ties with Belarus, the authors note. Posts on Facebook suggest that he is either married or engaged to a Belarusian woman, and that he also has relatives there and travelled to Belarus frequently from a young age. On Telegram, Trockis was active only in chats dedicated to border crossings. In May 2024, he was looking for someone to stand in line for him at the Šalčininkai-Benyakoni border crossing point.
The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry confirmed the information about the sentence and said it remains in constant contact with the convicted man’s relatives, while a consul has already visited him.
