Anatoly Lebedko: Lithuanians can invest in Lukashenko's Belarus, but no one guarantees fair play

Speaking at a news conference of an international democracy forum in Vilnius, he said Lithuanian investments in Belarus were like buying matches for Lukashenko.

"In my opinion, it is important for Lithuania to have a strategic approach – decide what neighbor it wants to have. The neighbor now is in a condition that it cannot be given matches, he can burn his house down and the fire can transfer to the neighbor. If this is satisfactory to Lithuanian businessmen, they can invest in the purchase of matches for Lukashenko. However, at the same time they should know that nobody will give them guarantees," Lebedko said.

In his words, Belarus is "a test for all of Europe" – it will now be clear who cares about values and who prefer a pragmatic approach.

"When I was leaving Belarus, I received information about the administration simply took one of the best Belorussian companies, invited its Belorussian owner and said that its shares were distributed improperly, 57 percent had to be given to the government, 3 percent to the city administration. And he did this. After such examples, how can you invest in a country where the Constitution does not work and there are no guarantees of property rights," said Lebedko.

He called to invest instead in Belorussian democracy, emphasizing that some aspects that Lithuanians might find attractive in the neighboring country were merely a misleading surface.

"If you come to Belarus, many things will seem nice. Clean streets, large number of militia officers allegedly guarding public peace. If you take a special route, you will have blissful feelings. Unfortunately, many people in Lithuania think that some economic miracle with a distinctive political structure has been built in the neighboring state," said the opposition figure.

"It is just the exterior, because two years ago I was in a KGB custody with no administration, merely people with masks who handled political prisoners and everybody else there. It is a country where 15 people are still held in prisons for their political views," he said.

In February, European Union's (EU) foreign ministers decided to impose sanctions against 29 Belorussian companies owned by three businessmen close to Lukashenko, and another 12 people were blacklisted.

The EU sanctions were for the first time imposed against companies owned by oligarchs Yuri Chizh and Anatoly Ternavski. New enterprises owned by businessman Vladimir Peftiyev were also blacklisted. These companies, dubbed Lukashenko's "purses", will be able to make financial transactions in the EU.

After Lithuanian business representatives warned about the damages of the economic sanctions for Lithuania, diplomats dismissed the fears as ungrounded, as no “large-scale economic sanctions” had been taken against Belarus, with measures imposed against oligarchs, not state companies.

In an interview published in early April, Belorussian Ambassador to Vilnius Vladimir Drazhin warned that Lithuania's support to EU sanctions against Minsk could lead to billions of litas in losses.