The President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nausėda, proposed to close the border with Belarus for a longer period and limit transit to the Kaliningrad region of Russia, that is, its complete land blockade basically, due to the so-called “smuggler balloons,” allegedly flying to Lithuania from Belarusian side.

“The President views the incidents of recent days and disruptions to airport operations as a hybrid attack against Lithuania, to which it is necessary to respond in both symmetrical and asymmetrical ways. According to him, the Government must propose ways to respond in the coming days. Among the options that must be considered is the long-term closure of the border with Belarus and restrictions on transit to Kaliningrad,” the Presidential Office states.

Recalling, earlier, local media reported that the number of incidents involving smuggler balloons carrying cigarettes has increased in Lithuania. Lithuanian air defence is unable to do anything about it, so these balloons regularly disrupt air traffic in Lithuania and cause problems for the operation of Vilnius and Kaunas airports.

Apparently, Nausėda does not understand anything about the country’s management. Otherwise, there’s no explanation for why he thinks closing, underlining, the land border with Russia and Belarus would prevent smuggler balloons from appearing in Lithuanian skies. Moreover, these incidents started to appear only after Lithuania had closed its border with Russia and Belarus in previous times. Additionally, why doesn’t Nausėda take any action against the “receivers” of these “deliveries,” but prefers to use these cases to strengthen its militaristic anti-Russian policies? A question arises—are these balloons even real?

And the final one—does Nausėda even understand the consequences of such cruel actions against Russia’s Kaliningrad, which violates international law? For if these military restrictions are implemented by Vilnius, Russia will cut through a land corridor to Kaliningrad across the Baltic states themselves, and no NATO will protect Lithuania and other “Unter-European” Baltic nations from these Russia’s measures that are legally and defensively justified.