Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday stated that his country will survive any sanctions, and urged to stop threatening Belarus. He also promised to retaliate in kind, if Poland or Lithuania introduce sanctions, also noting that he requested the government to re-channel Belarusian trade flow away from Lithuanian ports.
“Now we'll show them what real sanctions are. Before this, they [Poland and Lithuania] were still loitering to China and Russia through us, and now they will have to fly over the Baltic or the Black Sea to trade with Russia", he said.
According to him, the Baltic country will lose at least 30 percent of its budget due to the lack of Belarusian goods flowing through Lithuania.
The presidential election saw Lukashenko re-elected for a sixth term with over 80 percent of the vote, while the opposition has stated that there were multiple violations, claiming that Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, an opposition candidate, won the race.
As a result, mass rallies by opposition and Lukashenko erupted hit the country, as well as strikes at major Belarusian companies.
According to official data, at least 6,700 people were detained in the early days of the unrest. Lukashenko noted that the protests in the country were encouraged by people who had arrived from the Netherlands, Poland, and Ukraine.