Belarus leader threatens to halt transit of EU goods via his country to east

KYIV (Reuters) – Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, on Tuesday threatened to stop the transit of European Union goods via his country to Russia and China in retaliation for EU sanctions.

The 27-nation bloc imposed wide-ranging economic sanctions on Belarus last month, targeting its main export industries and access to finance after Minsk forced a Ryanair flight to land and arrested a dissident blogger.

Rating agencies and analysts say the sanctions will leave Lukashenko largely unscathed and able to continue financing the economy and his security forces.

But officials in Belarus have spoken of economic warfare being waged on their country, and Lukashenko on Tuesday raised the prospect of counter sanctions that would halt the transit of EU goods via Belarus eastwards.

“First: not a step inside the Belarusian market; second: not a step through Belarus either,” Lukashenko told a government meeting.

“Exactly the same should be done with the Germans. Let (them) supply their products to China and Russia through Finland. Or through Ukraine,” he added.

Lukashenko did not specify when transit could be blocked and which countries, beyond Germany, could be affected.

When asked about the potential transit block earlier on Tuesday, the Kremlin said disruption to supply chains could not be ruled out and that serious work would be required to minimize such problems if they occurred.

Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said his government would “look at the behavior of our European partners” and take what he called appropriate measures that would not damage the Belarusian economy.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

Belarus tells EU envoy to go, withdraws migration help in sanctions row

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Belarus on Monday told the European Union’s representative in Minsk to return to Brussels for consultations and said it would stop helping the 27-nation bloc combat illegal migration as retaliation against EU sanctions.

The EU last week imposed wide-ranging economic sanctions on Belarus targeting its main export industries and access to finance over its interception of a Ryanair flight last month.

Belarusian authorities intercepted the flight, from Athens to Vilnius, on May 23 and arrested dissident journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega who were on board, sparking international outrage.

The Belarusian foreign ministry set out its response to the EU sanctions on Monday and said it was recalling its own permanent representative to Brussels for consultations.

It announced an entry ban on EU officials responsible for the sanctions and said it was working on economic retaliatory measures against the bloc.

“We hope that EU officials and those from its member states are aware of the damage and futility of using a forceful approach in their relations with Belarus,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The ministry added that Belarus was suspending its participation in the EU’s Eastern Partnership, a policy initiative that aims to deepen the EU’s ties with neighboring former communist countries.

Belarus said it would also suspend a readmission agreement with the European Union, which defines the procedures to readmit people who illegally cross the joint border.

“(This will)…negatively affect cooperation with the European Union in the illegal migration and organized crimes spheres,” the statement said.

(Reporting by Anton Kolodyazhnyy and Polina Ivanova; Writing by Alexander Marrow/Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Andrew Osborn)