MINSK, October 31. /TASS/. Western countries are provoking a conflict with Russia and Belarus by threatening to block the Suwalki Corridor, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said.
"The Russians transport goods there from their territory. Not nuclear weapons, not any kind of weapons, but goods. They are checked by Lithuanian border guards. This corridor goes through Lithuania. What are you doing? This is a nuclear power. And you’re provoking it? Why are you preventing Russia from having any normal link with the Kaliningrad Region? You are provoking," the BelTA news agency quoted him as saying.
According to the president, Western countries are acting similarly with regard to Belarus. Lukashenko recalled that, after the Baltic countries closed their ports to Belarus, the country found an alternative route through the ports of the Leningrad Region and St. Petersburg. "We have a port in Bronka. They closed off our ability to load cargo in Lithuania and the ports of Latvia and Poland. Those are your ports. We are not going there. We found a port in the Leningrad Region. We [the Western countries] will close the Baltic ports. We are meeting with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to discuss this issue. I have already mentioned this somewhere," Lukashenko recalled.
"Look what it's all come to. They've become insolent. What is the solution? We can escort our merchant ships with military vessels. Is that what you want?" the Belarusian leader pointed out.
He emphasized that Western countries are "asking for trouble" by doing this. "Who is pushing them to do this? We can only guess. Europe is pushing them to escalate tensions. That is why I am being careful, cutting them some slack. But there's a limit to that," Lukashenko noted.