Latvian citizens are not recommended to travel to Belarus despite Minsk waiving visa requirements over concerns about the neighboring country's "good intentions," the Latvian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th April, 2022) Latvian citizens are not recommended to travel to Belarus despite Minsk waiving visa requirements over concerns about the neighboring country's "good intentions," the Latvian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Belarus granted visa-free entry to Lithuanian and Latvian citizens starting Friday, with this policy expected to last for one month.
"The Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs would like to remind about significant risks to Latvian nationals visiting the country, and repeatedly advises against doing that. The call on the Latvian nationals to leave Belarus and Russia continues to apply," the ministry said in a statement, adding that it "has no reason to believe that the offer to visit Belarus visa-free has been made for humanitarian reasons or with good intentions."
The ministry also warned that Latvian visitors could allegedly become targets of provocations by Belarusian special services and face false accusations followed by arrest, stressing that Latvia's ability to help its nationals will be very limited.
On February 24, Russia began its special military operation in Ukraine, responding to calls for help from the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Western countries and their allies have accused Minsk of assisting Moscow in the operation and participating in hostilities on the Russian side. The West has rolled out a sanctions campaign against both Russia and Belarus.
