‘Poland Delivers Powerful Blows To Lukashenka’s Wallets’

What do Brest residents think about the possible closure of the border with Poland?

Since February 10, Poland has closed the Bobrowniki checkpoint in response to a harsh sentence for political prisoner Andrzej Poczobut. Yesterday, representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland Lukasz Jasina, said that the Terespol border checkpoint could also be closed. According to him, “such a decision is already on the table”.

It should be noted that “Brest / Terespol” is the only checkpoint for buses and cars, which is currently operating on the Belarusian-Polish border. For freight transport, “Kazlovichy” checkpoint also works.

The website Charter97.org talked about the possible complete closure of the Polish border with Belarus with Andrei Sharenda, an activist of the European Belarus civil campaign and the husband of political prisoner Palina Sharenda-Panasyuk.

— The Polish government makes difficult decisions that affect dozens of thousands of Belarusians living near the border. Many of my friends from Brest, Hrodna travel to Poland almost daily. Most often to work or to earn extra money. In Belarus, salaries are miserable.

They earn by transporting things, goods that are allowed by law. It turns out around $200-500 additional income for the family, on which they are trying to live. Closing the borders, of course, will hit the budget of these families, the quality of life, but many understand why this is happening, that only the Lukashenka regime is to blame. Poland's actions are fully justified.

Brest is one of the cities that suffered the most from repressions. I will even say that any Brest resident has acquaintances or relatives who were repressed. This had a profound effect on people's minds.

Everything goes to the fact that Poland will also close the main border crossing checkpoint “Brest/ Terespol”. In fact, it is now the only one left for the passage of buses and private cars. For trucks, there is “Kazlovichy”.

Since 2020, direct trains from Belarus to Poland have been canceled, and you could get from Brest to Warsaw via Terespol in just a few hours. Now several dozen buses run from Brest to Terespol, Biała Podlaska and Warsaw.

I will say that about 10,000 Belarusians cross the border every day by buses alone. This is a blow to the residents of Brest, they will lose additional income: the quality of life will fall. In Brest, it is simply impossible to buy products of such quality that are sold in the neighboring small Polish Terespol.

— How strong a blow is the closure of the border, in your opinion, to the Lukashenka regime?

— Yes, Poland is hitting Lukashenka and his hangers-on powerfully. A blow to the “gray schemes” that work around the sanctions. A simple example: since the autumn of last year, Polish apples have been noticed in Belarusian stores. Sanctions work, and officially they cannot be delivered to Belarus. Nevertheless, they are on the shelves of shops under the guise of Belarusian ones, but these are clearly Polish fruits. A Brest resident will not confuse Polish apples with any other.

This suggests that “gray schemes” of fruit and vegetable smuggling are working. Some of them settle in Belarus, and most of them go to Russia. These schemes bring profit to the oligarchs who are under Lukashenka, his “wallets”. So they will be left without additional income of hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Closing the borders will eliminate the smuggling of both apples and cigarettes. It's no secret that cigarette smuggling is a shadow business of “Lukashenka's wallets”. This is some very good support for a regime that will come to an end. Closing checkpoints, if not completely deprive them of their earnings, but a big piece for sure. This is a painful blow.

— Your wife Palina is a political prisoner. Will blocking transit for the regime speed up the release of political prisoners?

— I think that if Poland closes all border crossings, Lithuania and Latvia will join it, then this can lead to an economic collapse in Belarus. The economy of our country is already in a deplorable state. Such a blow could knock it out.

I would like to emphasize that as a citizen of Brest, whose acquaintances and relatives were subjected to repressions, I have a positive attitude towards such scenario.

— Many Russian and Chinese trains and trucks go through Brest. Can Beijing and the Kremlin put pressure on Lukashenka if the borders are closed?

— Undoubtedly. The closure of both land crossings and railways will lead to the fact that fellow dictators Putin and Xi Jinping will put pressure on Lukashenka. After all, we are talking about billions of dollars of damage to the budget of Lukashenka and other countries. It is possible that they will put pressure, and this will give a result.

I want to say that now the idea is floating in society that “let’s ease the sanctions, maybe they will release someone.” No.

The moment has come when, on the contrary, it is necessary to crush the regime with sanctions. The more outcast Lukashenka is in the whole world, the faster not only political prisoners will be freed. Releasing them is the first step towards victory, but the additional pressure will cause the regime to fall more quickly and we will get what we want — our common victory.