{"id":494364,"date":"2025-10-31T14:28:31","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T11:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=494364"},"modified":"2025-10-31T17:41:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T14:41:37","slug":"lukashenka-accuses-lithuania-of-smuggling-cigarettes-from-belarus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/lukashenka-accuses-lithuania-of-smuggling-cigarettes-from-belarus","title":{"rendered":"Lukashenka Accuses Lithuania of Smuggling Cigarettes from Belarus"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(updated with additional quotes later released by Lukashenka\u2019s press service)<\/mark><\/em><\/p>\n

Alyaksandr Lukashenka<\/b> has claimed that cigarette smuggling from Belarus to Lithuania using weather balloons is organized by Lithuanian citizens. Earlier, while opening the Minsk Conference on Eurasian Security, Lukashenka said that Lithuania had closed its border because of the balloons to prevent guests from attending the conference.<\/p>\n

He continued the topic today. On Thursday, the Lithuanian government decided to close its border with Belarus until November 30, while allowing crossings at the Medininkai checkpoint for certain categories of people.<\/p>\n

Lukashenka primarily blamed the governments of Lithuania and Poland, saying their actions had forced citizens of both countries into smuggling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey built a fence. But people were used to living that way \u2014 they had businesses, they produced goods. They could make and sell to us, we could make and sell to them. There was trade. They built the fence and tore apart those living ties. <\/i><\/p>\n

Millions of people instantly lost their jobs \u2014 their livelihoods \u2014 especially in Poland. There it\u2019s private production, they are even more dependent on trade than we are. Lithuanian and Polish authorities \u2014 you are to blame for this. Why did you put people in such conditions? Why did you push them onto the path of crime?\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n

According to Lukashenka, Belarusian citizens legally bought cigarettes from factories and resold them to Lithuanians who entered Belarus. The Lithuanians then allegedly carried the cigarettes across the border using balloons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people, whose lives and fates were cut apart along the border \u2014 they have children to feed, something to do \u2014 saw that they could buy cheap goods here and resell them there. Earn big money. <\/i><\/p>\n

They set up this business. Our people buy cigarettes at a good price from the factory and sell them to Lithuanians. They need to get them over the fence. They threw them in small batches using those balloons. Lithuanians received the balloons and took the cigarettes,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n

Lukashenka added that Lithuanian border guards were also involved, as they must have seen everything happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid our people see this? Surely they did. But what about us? You imposed sanctions against us, you are strangling us. As I often say \u2014 are we supposed to protect you? So let the balloons fly. We\u2019ll still check this. But the main thing is \u2014 Lithuanians received those balloons and took the cigarettes. They didn\u2019t sell them in Lithuania. They sold them in the Netherlands and England. They say that\u2019s where cigarettes are the most expensive,\u201d<\/i> he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can I blame them \u2014 what\u2019s Belarus\u2019s fault here? I don\u2019t see why people should be punished. They wanted to earn money \u2014 they earned it. If they had stolen those cigarettes\u2026 No, they paid for them. What are the claims against us? That we sold cigarettes to Lithuanians? We sold them. That\u2019s legal,\u201d<\/i> he said.<\/p>\n

Lukashenka said that Lithuanian citizens entered Belarus unofficially.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case, people were invited from Lithuania \u2014 we identified two of them. We have a visa-free regime. But they didn\u2019t use it. They came through the \u2018green route,\u2019 agreed with Lithuanian border guards \u2014 they opened the gate, and they came to us,\u201d<\/i> he said.<\/p>\n

According to him, Lithuanians came to Belarus after Belarusian participants refused to launch the balloons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said: \u2018No, the president will jail us, we won\u2019t do that!\u2019 So they bought the balloons online. And since our people refused, those Lithuanians themselves threw the cigarettes into Lithuania using the balloons. And Lithuanians on the other side \u2014 the ones who had lost their livelihoods \u2014 collected them. <\/i><\/p>\n

I actually want to clarify how many balloons flew. They say 200. Our \u2018bandits\u2019 say: \u2018Tell the president there weren\u2019t 200 \u2014 maybe two dozen. We don\u2019t even have that many balloons.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

If Lithuanians threw them to themselves, then find those Lithuanians, identify them, and ask them why. They understand this \u2014 and reportedly, as I was told this morning, Lithuanians already found something. We\u2019ll find our people, ask why they did it. But I don\u2019t know how to blame them. They bought and sold,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Lukashenka acknowledged the importance of the fact that the incident disrupted airport operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe balloons rose up to five kilometers, they say. What if there had been a civilian plane \u2014 people could have died. That\u2019s unacceptable to me and it matters,\u201d<\/i> he said.<\/p>\n

However, he suggested another motive behind the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lithuanians understand that this will all come out, it\u2019ll become known. I\u2019ll reveal a secret: we\u2019re holding talks with the Americans. They\u2019re difficult, they go differently. And literally the next day after that night when the balloons flew, the Americans sent us a message saying that the Belarusians were to blame, that the authorities and Lukashenka must immediately apologize to Lithuania \u2014 publicly. <\/i><\/p>\n

I said: \u2018Go to hell,\u2019 and so on. I said we would apologize if we were guilty. What should I apologize for? But the Americans demand an apology, and so do the Lithuanians. Who\u2019s managing whom? The Lithuanians complained to the Americans, who are negotiating with us. The Americans sent me a letter demanding that I apologize. And the Lithuanians, following their orders, are demanding the same.<\/em><\/p>\n

If I am guilty \u2014 based on that \u2014 I\u2019m ready to apologize. But I don\u2019t see my guilt, nor the guilt of our people. And let\u2019s be honest \u2014 if we wanted to send cigarettes to Poland, we\u2019d ship a whole wagon. And they would accept it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Why? Because there\u2019s demand. That\u2019s economics. You can\u2019t escape it. If goods there cost five or ten times more than here, they\u2019ll dig a tunnel underground and send them through. And whoever sees it will stay quiet if he\u2019s paid (the border guards). He\u2019s paid \u2014 he stays quiet. Cigarettes aren\u2019t nuclear weapons,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n

According to Lukashenka, the issue lies in the West\u2019s desire to \u201cfind something to put pressure on us.\u201d As an example, he cited sanctions and restrictions imposed after the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk in 2021, when Raman Pratasevich<\/b> and Sofia Sapega<\/b> were detained. Lukashenka said today that Pratasevich was in fact an officer of Belarusian intelligence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(updated with additional quotes later released by Lukashenka\u2019s press service) Alyaksandr Lukashenka has claimed that cigarette smuggling from Belarus to Lithuania using weather balloons is organized by Lithuanian citizens. Earlier, while opening the Minsk Conference on Eurasian Security, Lukashenka said that Lithuania had closed its border because of the balloons to prevent guests from attending […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":494363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/6904caa5c4f1c.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Lukashenka Accuses Lithuania of Smuggling Cigarettes from Belarus"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142339,142338],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-494364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main","category-news"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}