October 13, Pozirk. Alaksandar Łukašenka has denied Minsk’s involvement in the early October standoff between armed human traffickers and Latvian border guards, claiming that Latvia staged it as he addressed senior security officials in Minsk.
“We know perfectly well, and I’ve already been briefed on this, that this was all done by the Latvians themselves as a pretext to get money from the European Union,” his press office quoted him as saying. The Belarusian ruler did not provide any evidence to support his claims.
The statement came one day after a group called Chernyye Rusy [Black Russes] claimed responsibility between armed men attempting to smuggle 20 foreigners from Belarus and Latvian border guards.
“We have absolutely nothing to do with this, that we [supposedly] infiltrated their territory, [sent] masked men, soldiers, who grabbed someone, captured them or pushed some group of migrants in there. You couldn’t come up with anything more ridiculous,” Łukašenka went on to deny Minsk’s role.
He claimed that no border incursion into foreign territory could take place without his approval. “Such matters were not coordinated with me, and this means it did not happen. I know it for sure,” he assured senior security officials, praising their diligence. The Belarusian ruler also lashed out at independent media outlets, accusing them of “piling up” lies about Belarus.
On October 7, Latvia’s Interior Minister Jānis Dombrava accused Belarus of staging a “demonstrative and aggressive provocation” on the shared border in a post on X after border guards did not allow a group of 20 undocumented foreigners to cross irregularly into Latvia.
Armed escorts of the group threatened Latvian soldiers from the Belarusian side and pressured undocumented foreigners to cross the border, he said.
Several hours after this conflict, masked people entered Latvian territory, damaged a relay cabinet and stole surveillance cameras before retreating to Belarus, Dombrava said.
Authorities in Minsk “should understand that such incidents could lead to more serious consequences for Belarus,” he stressed.
