{"id":106742,"date":"2024-09-26T18:45:21","date_gmt":"2024-09-26T15:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/106742\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"minsk-appeals-to-vilnius-for-reset-of-relations-weeks-before-lithuanias-election","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/106742\/","title":{"rendered":"Minsk appeals to Vilnius for reset of relations weeks before Lithuania\u2019s election"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n \"\"\n
\n
\n\n Vilnius\n <\/div>\n \n
\n (Pozirk)<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

September 26, Pozirk<\/em>.<\/strong> Weeks before Lithuania\u2019s parliamentary election scheduled for October 13, the Belarusian foreign minister has appealed to Vilnius to reset relations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an article run by Belarus\u2019 biggest state-controlled newspaper, Maksim Ry\u017eanko\u016d accused the Lithuanian government of supporting \u201ca coup d\u2019etat\u201d in Belarus in 2020 and \u201cstarting a short-sighted hybrid war against the Belarusian state and people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He listed benefits of a reset, such as supplies of cheap electricity, wood pellets, fire wood, crop nutrients, petroleum products, food and drugs from Belarus, education and cultural exchanges, joint projects to upgrade border-crossing points, energy cooperation, joint ventures and people-to-people contacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The appeal drew an immediate response from Viktorija \u010cmilyt\u0117-Nielsen, speaker of the Lithuanian parliament. Lithuania\u2019s position remains clear, she said, \u201cthe country supports the Belarusian opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the moment, we have no reason to believe that the \u0141uka\u0161enka regime has stopped supporting Russia. Besides, we know, that journalists and opposition activists remain imprisoned in Belarus,\u201d LRT<\/a><\/em> quoted her as saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arciom \u0160rajbman, a Belarusian political analyst, played down Minsk\u2019s overture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ry\u017eanko\u016d \u201cis fulfilling Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s orders who tasked him several times to \u2018signal amicability to the neighbors,\u2019\u201d he told Pozirk<\/em>. \u201cSuch amicability is usually limited to rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The keynote of the article is that Lithuanians \u201cmust vote pragmatically in the coming election to elect politicians who support friendship with Belarus,\u201d \u0160rajbman added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pozirk <\/em>has asked the Lithuanian foreign ministry for comment, but has not yet received its reply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tension between the two countries escalated after Vilnius sheltered opposition leaders, activists and businesses that fled politically-motivated persecution in Belarus after the 2020 disputed presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A total of 62,535 Belarusian nationals resided in Lithuania on July 1, according to the country\u2019s migration authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lithuania strongly supported sanctions imposed by the European Union on Belarus over its government\u2019s complicity in Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the forced landing of a Ryanair flight bound for Vilnius.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n
\n \"\"
\n

\u0141uka\u0161enka fears his exiled opponents may storm into Belarus<\/h3>\n
September 26,\u00a0Pozirk.\u00a0Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka turned his fire on his political opponents during his conference with officials in Minsk on September 26. He claimed that his exiled opponents are planning \u201cto storm into territory [Belarus] as Ukrainians did it in the Kursk …<\/div>\n \n