The issue of completely closing Lithuania’s border with Belarus is losing relevance as the Wagner mercenary group is leaving the neighbouring country, says President Gitanas Nausėda.
“This is an issue of several weeks ago when it was quite obvious that the threats to relocate the Wagner group to Belarus had already started to be carried out and when information emerged that some of the Wagner group’s fighters had appeared in the Gozha training area which is very close to the Lithuanian and Polish borders,” he told an LRT TV programme on Monday evening.
At his meeting with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in early August, Nausėda called on the region’s countries to set out criteria and define threats that would warrant a full closure of their borders with Belarus.
The interior ministers of Lithuania, Latvia and Poland agreed on such criteria later in August.
Nausėda says that the security situation has not worsened since then and that there are signs of disarray among Wagner troops following the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the group’s leader.
“Today, I have no concrete information suggesting that the Wagner group’s members are close to our borders or are trying to destabilise the border situation,” he told LRT TV on Monday evening. “The Polish side would hardly be able to add anything more.”
Nausėda said that actions of the region’s countries must be adequate to the situation.
“If the situation gets complicated, we act in one way. If the situation remains as it is now, or even stabilises, we have to act differently. Nobody wants to close the borders again just for the fun of it,” the president said.
“I think we can say so,” he added when asked if the issue of a complete border closure is losing its relevance.
Closer scrutiny of Belarusians in Lithuania
With around 60,000 Belarusian citizens currently residing in Lithuania, Nausėda said that they should be subject to closer scrutiny.
“I think we have to be much more interested in what role or what goals drive people from Belarus who come to Lithuania,” the president said.
“I’m not throwing any shadow on Belarusian people here; I’m just saying that the Belarusian regime has its own goals and is quite skilled at using people as instruments,” he added.
Immigration from Belarus to Lithuania increased after the 2020 presidential election, which saw the long-time authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko declared the winner.
According to Nausėda, some of those arriving in Lithuania may not necessarily cooperate with Belarusian intelligence, but they could be trying to circumvent sanctions and continue doing business.
The president also said that their relatives back in Belarus may face threats and pressure, which could make Belarusians in Lithuania vulnerable.
“So we have to keep all this in mind and not bring the discussion down to a purely economic level where we need cheaper labour,” he said. “We always have to think not only about the economy, but also about our national security.”
However, Nausėda emphasised that Lithuania must keep open the humanitarian corridor for those fleeing the Lukashenko regime.
The president is among those advocating for applying the same national restrictions to Russian and Belarusian citizens.
Belarusian citizens could face additional difficulties in entering Lithuania and acquiring real estate in the country if they were made subject to the same restrictions as those imposed on Russians last spring.
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