Franak Vyachorka, Senior Advisor to Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, has commented on the political scandal associated with the transportation of potash fertilizers through the territory of Lithuania despite the sanctions. He spoke on the air of Belsat.
According to Vyachorka, the Lithuanian government has shown determination and integrity in this situation. Still, it turned out that “political will has collided with business regulation in the European Union.”
“Lithuania can’t impose economic sanctions. Brussels can do it. The economic sanctions imposed by Brussels allow the Lithuanian railroad or other companies to transport this potassium through their territory. A similar situation happened with Yara, which continues to buy products despite the sanctions (well, it will do it for a few more months).
That doesn’t mean the sanctions don’t work and won’t work. It’s just that this one-step effect that we were hoping for won’t work. It will have a cumulative effect. Closer to January-February, it will be more sensitive,” he said.
Franak Vyachorka stressed that “our goal is not to impose sanctions, but to lift the sanctions,” but that should happen only after new and fair elections.
“Before that, the lifting of sanctions is simply not possible. And it seems to me that there is an understanding that we need to continue the pressure. But there are not enough mechanisms. So among other things, we discussed with European officials, including those in Poland, a need for a mechanism that will control how different firms, Lukashenka’s aides, bypass the sanctions so that it will be much more difficult for them to do so than now,” Tsikhanouskaya’s adviser noted.
Franak Vyachorka also spoke about Tsikhanouskaya’s visit to Warsaw, his speech at the “summit for democracy,” and the new wave of repression in Belarus. You can watch the entire conversation here.
