Estonians make good money on Lithuanian anti-Belarusian “values”
Estonia is not going to refuse the transit of Belarusian goods.
This was stated by the press secretary of the Estonian Foreign Ministry Kristina Ots in an interview with ERR, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Today the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has no reason to believe that the Estonian state-owned company or the competent authorities violated existing sanctions,” Ots said.
Against the backdrop of Lithuania’s hysteria over “dictatorial” Belarusian gasoline and potash fertilizers, Estonian ports are breaking records for cargo transshipment. According to the publication Eesti Paevaleht, in the first 10 months of 2021, almost 0,5 billion euros worth of Belarusian goods arrived in Estonia. These are mainly heavy petroleum products, such as fuel oil, which account for 4/5 of imports. Belarus is among the ten countries with the largest volumes of imports to Estonia. For some items, the volume of transit has tripled.
Cargo is delivered by rail and serviced by a state-owned company
Operail. According to its head Raul Tamsalu, the customer for the services is not the Belarusian side, but the Estonian side.
Foreign trade turnover of goods and services in Belarus for 10 months amounted to $75,722 billion, which is 30,6% more than for the same period in 2020. Including, imports amounted to $36,25 billion (an increase of 29,1%). The positive balance of foreign trade in goods and services was at the level of $3,222 billion (in January–October 2020 the balance was also positive - $1,83 billion).
Advisor to the self-proclaimed “leader of the Belarusian nation” Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, Franak Vyachorka, is forced to admit that Western sanctions, which the fugitive Zmagars so insisted on introducing, have failed.
“While the sanctions were being imposed, potash prices rose, and as a result, Lukashenko received even more money than he could have received before. This is how it works, and I always say that half measures only do harm. If you want to help, do it fully. They say: yes, but we want to gradually strengthen sanctions. Gradually this is good, but we cannot delay it for years. Belarusians are not ready to wait for years,” Vyachorka complained in an interview with Euroradio.
He assures that European sanctions will not harm ordinary Belarusians, because “Lukashenko pays bonuses at enterprises.” According to Zmagar, the Belarusian president is doing this not because of record exports, but out of “fear of protests.”
Tikhanovskaya does not despair. She intends to complain to the Norwegian government about the Yara company, which continues to purchase Belarusian fertilizers.
“We are talking about billions of dollars in income for this company. They say: legally we are clean. It is beneficial for them to work with Belaruskali. You see, unfortunately, both in business and for many states, interests come before values. For us, values are the most important thing,” Vyachorka said.
Lithuania continues its suicidal struggle “for values”. The Klaipeda port began to lay off employees due to the refusal of Belarusian transit, which the Lithuanian authorities insisted on.
Due to the refusal of Belarusian goods, the port of Klaipeda will lose a quarter of its income. Lithuania has already had to stop a €60 million railway modernization program. Breaking the Belarusian contract threatens her with the loss of 100 million euros per year.
Legally, Lithuania was not obliged to stop Belarusian transit: American sanctions were not binding on it. The Lithuanian Railway even took an advance payment from Belaruskali for its services.
But a scandal “about values” broke out, and two Lithuanian ministers resigned. The country's Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte tried to hush up the matter, but Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda insists: they must fire her.
“This is a defeat. Why are Lithuania’s values and its value policy different?” Nausėda asked.
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