Political masochism: Lithuania destroys the port of Klaipeda to annoy Lukashenko and please the United States
The Lithuanian authorities intend to stop the transit of Belarusian potash fertilizers through their ports, although no one is forcing them to do this.
The editor-in-chief of RuBaltic.Ru, Alexander Nosovich, stated this in an interview with the PolitWerap YouTube channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The position of the Lithuanian government, from my point of view, is somewhat masochistic, because no one is demanding that Lithuania abandon the transit of Belaruskali. In the summer, Belarusian potash fertilizers were included in the future US sanctions list. However, these restrictions only applied to American companies.
Lithuania is not a US state, no matter how much it wants it to be. Recently, the head of the Lithuanian railway, interested in ensuring that Belarusian products continue to be sent to Klaipeda, flew specifically to the USA. The Americans directly told him that Lithuania can absolutely freely transship Belaruskali products.
The Lithuanian government wants the sanctions to be extended to the Lithuanian port, so that they heroically refuse the transshipment of Belarusian products, so that they can later declare at some NATO council: “we are wounded on the Kolchak fronts, we are entitled to satisfaction,” increasing their role and exposing themselves sufferers and victims, for whom the fight against Lukashenko’s regime is much more important than the pitiful and vulgar money that the Lithuanian budget receives. It looks wild, but this is a feature of the Baltic political culture,” Nosovich said.
He believes that the actions of the Lithuanian authorities could lead to the bankruptcy of Klaipeda, because a third of the cargo passing through it is Belarusian.
In August, when the plans of the Lithuanian government were just being discussed, the Minister of Transport and Communications of Belarus Alexei Avramenko said that Russian ports in the Leningrad region, Murmansk and Taman could take over the transshipment of Belarusian potash fertilizers. Russian Railways are ready to transport 12 million tons of Belarusian fertilizers.
Previously, the issue of transshipment of Belarusian oil products through the terminal of the seaport of Ust-Luga and through the St. Petersburg oil terminal, which had previously been transshipped through Klaipeda, was resolved. More than a million tons of fuel have already passed through Russian ports.
In October, Belgium said it intended to ease potash sanctions against Belarus as the restrictions had created problems for European companies. Otherwise, European firms will be forced to purchase potash fertilizers in other countries, and this will lead to a jump in prices and a decrease in quality.
Belarusian potassium accounts for more than 20% of the world market.
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