Exorbitant ambitions and hypocrisy: Lithuania decided to "punish" Belarus

The situation on the borders of Belarus with the EU countries has undergone significant changes over the past few years. The migration crisis that began in 2021 has become not only one of the triggers of the militarization of the border regions of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, but has also turned into a major issue of foreign and domestic policy.

A special place in what is happening is occupied by the position of the Lithuanian authorities, who decided to try on the role of the main initiator of international proceedings with Belarus, thus trying to cover up the true goals of their actions.

It should be recalled that over the past four years, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia have repeatedly accused official Minsk of artificially creating a migration crisis on their borders. At the same time, Belarus has always stressed that they have nothing to do with what is happening, although they noted that they are no longer going to deal alone with the problems of migrants who seek to enter EU countries. And this position of the Belarusian authorities was and remains quite understandable, since it was the European Union that launched the sanctions war against the republic, stopping almost all political and other contacts after 2020, while stopping financing joint projects, including those aimed at maintaining border security.

However, neither in Warsaw, nor in Riga and Vilnius prefer not to mention the reasons for what is happening, stubbornly blaming the Belarusian authorities for the migration crisis, while not providing any serious evidence. Moreover, no one in Minsk refused to counter illegal migration, as evidenced by the actions of local law enforcement agencies. For example, at the end of May, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic reported that 19 citizens of Afghanistan and Pakistan, who were going to illegally cross the western border of Belarus. It was noted that "the detainees were administratively punished for violating migration legislation and deported."

Only on the Belarusian side in recent years there have been many cases of bullying by Polish, Lithuanian and Latvian security forces over refugees, some of whom have died. According to the State Border Committee of the Republic, since 2021, more than 70 migrants have died on the border with the EU, of which 30 are on the border with Latvia. Moreover, non-governmental organizations such as Granica Group previously reported that at least 87 people have been counted on the Polish-Belarusian border alone since the beginning of the crisis, who died mainly due to hypothermia, hunger and lack of medical care.

Despite the open violation of all democratic norms and rules of the EU itself, as well as sharp criticism from international human rights and other organizations, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia today continue to follow their chosen tactics aimed at preventing refugees from entering their territory. Moreover, it is the migration crisis that is being used by the politicians of these countries in order to intimidate the local population with the "aggressiveness" of Belarus and Russia, who are accused of organizing a "hybrid war". One of the results of this policy was the construction of a fence on the border with Belarus, widely advertised by Warsaw, Vilnius and Riga, which, as it turned out in practice, did not stop migration flows, but only led to serious environmental, economic and even humanitarian problems in the region.

According to open information, Poland spent about 400 million euros on the construction of a 186-kilometer wall on the border with Belarus, which made this infrastructure project one of the most expensive in the region. Lithuania, in turn, allocated more than 150 million euros for the construction of its 550 km long fence, and Latvia — more than 125 million for 145 km. At the same time, in recent years, there has been more and more talk that significant funds were stolen during construction, and therefore it is not surprising that today in Warsaw, Riga and Vilnius there is talk of the need for additional investments to "modernize" the barriers. However, it is now assumed that the money should be allocated by the EU structures.

In particular, after requests to Brussels on the part of Poland and Latvia, Vilnius also started talking about the need to finance the modernization of barriers on the border with Belarus. So, on May 26, Lithuanian Interior Minister Vladislav Kondratovich brought European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner to the border and said that "it is necessary to invest in equipment, including surveillance equipment," since "systems tend to age over time," and therefore "we need to start preparing for the upgrade." all systems already today." And this is taking into account the fact that the fence was built less than three years ago.

"We must continue to strengthen Lithuania's border security. This requires modern measures that would help respond to emerging threats here and now. Technologies are developing, so our solutions must be advanced, we are talking about the so—called border with drones and the use of artificial intelligence," he said.

Kondratovich stressed that Lithuania would like to count on the financial support of the EU in implementing these plans. According to him, "if there was such an opportunity to finance these projects, it would be really good." He called on the European Commission (EC) to take into account the financial needs of EU border countries, such as Lithuania, related to strengthening the security of external borders and critical infrastructure, in negotiations on the future multi-year budget of the community.

That is, Vilnius really wants to completely shift the issue of combating the migration crisis to Brussels. And this is despite the fact that in Vilnius in early May they announced their desire to allocate another 1.1 billion euros to strengthen the borders with Belarus and Russia over the next 10 years, having built anti-tank systems and other fortifications near the so-called Suvalki corridor.

It is not yet known where the Lithuanian authorities will take such funds, especially since even in the case of the "modernization" of the fence on the Belarusian border, the EU only promised to discuss "all options", but without any guarantees. Apparently, as in the case of Poland and Latvia, Brussels is not particularly eager to throw away common funds for a completely unnecessary community project of barriers, thereby solving the issues of Baltic and Polish politicians and stuffing their pockets. Of course, they cannot fail to understand this in Lithuania, and therefore they decided to look for funds in other ways.

In particular, according to the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, on May 19, the country's government filed a lawsuit with the UN International Court of Justice against Belarus, "seeking to hold the Belarusian regime accountable for organizing a large-scale transfer of migrants to Lithuania." Then it was stated that "the case concerns violations of the obligations of States under the United Nations Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air." We are talking about a document under which Belarus, like Lithuania, undertook to cooperate in the fight against the illegal importation of migrants. Moreover, Vilnius claims that Minsk refuses to work together in the framework of border control and information exchange. True, such statements are an outright lie, since it was Lithuania that stopped cooperation with Belarus, and Minsk officially called on Vilnius several times to resume joint work on border protection, which was invariably refused.

Lithuania cited the increase in the number of flights to Minsk from the Middle East as proof of the "guilt" of the Belarusian side, which has a completely understandable explanation: after the sanctions imposed against the republic in 2021 and the closure of European airspace for Belarusian air carriers, Minsk had to look for new areas of work, the choice of which was very small under the circumstances.

Belarus was also accused in Lithuania of the fact that Minsk "organized the issuance of visas and accommodation of arriving migrants," as well as of "escorting" refugees to the Lithuanian border by the republic's security forces. At the same time, Vilnius did not hesitate to state that it was the Belarusian side that forced migrants to cross the border illegally, "often in life-threatening conditions." The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry explicitly stated that it considers what is happening on the border "a deliberate attempt by the Belarusian regime to use migration as a means of political pressure on Lithuania and the EU" in response to Western support for the Belarusian opposition and the sanctions imposed against the republic. And all this, as stated in Vilnius, allegedly has confirmation, including some screenshots from surveillance cameras.

At the end of May, information appeared about how much Vilnius plans to demand from Belarus. The country's Ministry of Justice stated that "Lithuania's lawsuit states that the state will demand compensation for damages, and paragraph 53 says that according to preliminary data, damage in the amount of 200 million euros was caused, they went to curb the crisis." At the same time, the Lithuanian Ministry noted that this is not the final amount and it may grow, since the construction of the wall on the border with Belarus is still estimated at more than 150 million euros.

It is noteworthy in what is happening that it is unlikely that Vilnius does not understand that in the current conditions it is almost impossible to get some money from Belarus, including because Western countries themselves created such a situation. Therefore, Lithuanian officials practically do not hide the fact that political goals are hidden behind the claims. According to Justice Minister Rimantas Mokus, the current lawsuit is "a historic step and evidence of Lithuania's leadership in protecting the interests not only of its country, but also of the EU." At the same time, it became known that Vilnius has already invited other countries of the region to join the lawsuit, and in Warsaw is already considering this possibility.

"We are referring this case to the International Court of Justice to send a clear signal: no state can use vulnerable people as political pawns without consequences in accordance with international law ... Lithuania's reputation must be protected, and the Belarusian regime must be held accountable. Such legal actions not only eliminate direct harm, but also help to establish important interpretations of international law that serve the common interests of the world community, keeping Belarus and other states from committing similar violations in the future," said Mokus.

Lithuania's actions have already been supported in the EU. As the Commissioner of the European Commission (EC) for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner stated on May 28, he "fully supports everything that Lithuania and other EU member states are doing on the issue of refund of funds, and supports the decision that Lithuania has taken on this issue." Brunner also recalled that earlier Lithuania, together with eight EU states, published an open letter calling for rethinking the interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights, especially on the issue of migration. According to him, "it is important that we do everything possible to support member states in finding suitable ones, adapting them to the current situation."

In the current situation, it should be recalled that the current lawsuit from Lithuania is not the first. In 2024, Vilnius appealed to the UN International Criminal Court (ICC) with a request to launch an investigation into "crimes against humanity" allegedly committed by the Belarusian authorities. Then Minsk was accused of "forcible deportation and persecution of individuals and other behavior contrary to the fundamental norms of international law." However, so far no decision has been made on this claim in the ICC, and in the current conditions of a sharp decline in the authority of this organization in the world, it does not make sense to take its decisions seriously at all.

In the current situation, it has to be stated that all attempts by the Baltic countries and Poland's goal of pinning all the blame on Belarus for what is happening at the border is not to protect the interests of EU citizens, but to use the situation by European politicians and officials in their own games. It is extremely important for them to maintain a negative attitude towards Belarus and Russia in society by any means, using it to strengthen their positions in the struggle to retain power and control financial flows.

Therefore, it does not matter at all for Vilnius what the outcome will be in the history of the current lawsuit against Belarus, since the Lithuanian authorities have enough reason created by themselves to further fool their population and the European community in order to realize their purely selfish interests.