“Closed up Shop”: Lukashenka’s Tobacco Business Was under Attack

Western countries are just getting a taste.

With enviable regularity, the customs services of our neighboring countries declare the detention of consignments of contraband cigarettes from Belarus. Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, even Russia - the cost of the seized cargo is estimated at millions of dollars.

Laurinas Kasciunas, chairman of the National Security and Defense Committee of the Lithuanian Seim, said that smuggling is the state policy of the Lukashenka regime, and Lithuania will strengthen border control to combat it.

The chief analyst of the Vilnius Institute for Political Analysis, Marius Laurinavicius, noted in his comments to the website Charter97.org that he had long drawn attention to such actions of the official Minsk:

“The special services of both Russia and Belarus are always involved in such cases. By themselves, such regimes are mafia, where smuggling is supervised at the state level.

Yes, everyone in Lithuania is now talking about it publicly. Everyone understands that this is a state business, which is associated with the economic difficulties of the Lukashenka regime. He's just trying to fill up his coffers. I believe that this smuggling was and will be as long as such regimes exist.

The Lithuanian political scientist sees in the fight against smuggling the minimization of the criminal influence of the Lukashenka regime on the Western countries:

- The closure of smuggling increases the pressure on the regime because the Belarusian authorities receive less profit from this criminal activity, but I do not look at this problem from the side of foreign policy, that is, pressure on this illegitimate regime, but from the internal one.

Marius Laurinavicius believes that smuggling from Belarus is a matter of Lithuania's security.

- It is important to note here that the influence on the EU market is minimal, and there is a problem of the spread of criminal ties and organizations. When it comes to smuggling, not only accomplices of the Lukashenka regime are associated with it but also people on the other side of the border, in Lithuania or other EU countries. All of them are this network of a criminal group that spreads criminal activity to our countries, therefore, it poses a threat to national security, - summed up the interlocutor of Charter97.org.

Hrodna Azot Trail

Representative of the Lithuanian State Border Service Donatas Škarnulis said in an interview with LRT that often cigarettes are already being put into carriages on the territory of Belarusian factories.

“According to criminal intelligence sources, some of the cigarettes that are imported into the Republic of Lithuania are loaded at fertilizer factories, where wagons are formed. We have data that the employees of these companies even inform the criminals which carriage is intended for the supplier, and they know that this carriage will go to Lithuania to Klaipeda. Therefore, it is necessary to put cigarettes there, which will then be smuggled into Lithuania,” he said.

The source of the website Charter97.org on Hrodna Azot confirmed that sometimes even the workers of the enterprise found contraband cigarettes while weighing the products:

- As a rule, all this was quickly hindered and, after a couple of days, no one from the authorities remembered about it. Only the workers discussed among themselves.

The interlocutor of Charter97.org draws attention to the fact that the oligarch Aleksey Oleksin, who is close to Lukashenka, who is called the "dictator's wallet," is engaged in the tobacco business in Belarus:

- Honestly, it is not possible to conduct business, therefore, Lukashenka allows his associates to supervise such areas. It is clear that the money then goes into the pocket of the usurper.

Our interlocutor believes that Western countries are just getting a taste, and the fight against the regime's gray schemes will continue:

- They closed up shop, now no one will turn a blind eye to contraband. If Western countries are vigilant, the blow to the regime will be very serious.

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