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Belarusian President Threatens to Cut European Transit Routes if Sanctions
Imposed

VOA News

   Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday threatened to cut
   European transit routes through Belarusian territory if sanctions are
   imposed on his country.

   Speaking while visiting a dairy factory, Lukashenko said he would block
   neighboring European countries from shipping goods to Russia over
   Belarusian territory and divert Belarusian exports now shipped through
   ports in neighboring EU member Lithuania to other outlets.

   "If they, Poles and Lithuanians, used to fly through us to China and
   Russia, now they will fly through the Baltic or through the Black Sea
   to trade with Russia, and so on, and they can only dream of sanctioned
   products, those products on which Russia has imposed an embargo," he
   said.

   Lukashenko also said he had ordered half the country's army to be at
   combat preparedness and had agreed with Russian President Vladimir
   Putin that troops of both countries could unite against a potential
   Western threat.

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