"We’ll Show Them What Sanctions Are." Lukashenko Threatened Lithuania and Poland with Retaliatory Measures

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has threatened Poland, Lithuania and other European countries to introduce retaliatory sanctions. One of such measures Lukashenko called the ban on cargo planes transit to Russia through Belarus. This reported on August 28 Lukashenko's press service. At a meeting with employees of one of the enterprises Lukashenko said that European countries would not be able to “tilt Belarus”. “Now we’ll show them what sanctions are. If they (Poles and Lithuanians) patrolled through us to China and Russia, then now they will fly either through the Baltic or the Black Sea to trade with Russia and so on. And as for the sanctioned products (the products Russia has imposed an embargo on) they may not even dream about them. They got stuffed and forgot what Belarus is. And they thought we could be tilted, scared with tanks, rockets ... Let's see who scares whom. We will show them what sanctions are,” Alexander Lukashenko said. At the same time, Lukashenko said that he instructed the government to make a proposal to reorient all trade flows from Lithuanian ports to others. “So we'll see the way they will live. 30% of the Lithuanian budget is formed by our cargo traffic through Lithuania. What else? Got stuffed. Therefore, we’ll show them their place,” Lukashenko noted. Lukashenko recalled that sanctions had already been imposed on Belarus, but the country managed to survive. “We survived. We will survive now. The world is not without good people. (…) Yesterday you heard the statement of our neighbor and my good friend (Russian President Vladimir Putin). This is not because the Russians want to protect Belarus. Listen, we'll defend ourselves. But the President of Russia and I understand what can be if we do not take measures,” he said. Recall, on the eve Putin announced that Russia has formed a reserve of law enforcement officers. If necessary, they will be sent to Belarus. At the same time, Putin stressed that so far there is no need for such an assistance. It should be noted that Lithuania has banned Lukashenka from entering the country. Together with Lukashenko, 31 more people were on the list. Earlier, the member states of the European Union held an emergency summit, following which German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the European Union’s heads of state did not recognize the results of the presidential elections in Belarus. In addition, President of the European Council Charles Michel said that the EU would impose sanctions on representatives of the Belarusian authorities, responsible for dispersing the protesters and illegitimate presidential elections. Recall, since August 9, Belarus mass protests against the results of the presidential elections, in which Alexander Lukashenko won, take place. According to the final voting results presented by the CEC of Belarus, 80.1% of voters voted for Lukashenko, and 10.1% for his main rival, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.