Exit to the sea in exchange for pleasure - such barter offered to Latvia by the Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. At the same time, he noted, if Lithuania does not wish to be friends, then the state headed by it will go the other way. "We must make sure that this republic gets pleasure from cooperation with Belarus. We are decent people, they are obligatory, they know it, "Vasily Markovich, the ambassador in Riga, said at the time of his appointment, the press service of Lukashenko reports.. According to the President of Belarus, Latvia has already experienced on its own that "not everything is being decided in Brussels". "The European Union will support for a while, and then it is necessary to earn by ourselves. And together we can earn. And, most importantly for us, through Latvia we can provide an unhindered normal exit to the sea with a profit for ourselves. And we must work in this direction, "Lukashenko urged.. Thus, experts suggested, he intended to change tactics: instead of Russia, with which Belarus has strong ties and which has a mass of seaports, Minsk decided to cooperate with the Baltic countries. First, the republic relies on exports, because it has what to offer abroad, believes political scientist, deputy director of the National Institute for the Development of Contemporary Ideology Igor Shatrov. "In 2017, Belarus sold to European consumers 12 million tons of petroleum products. And it is through the Latvian and Lithuanian ports that this export mainly took place. It is important to remember that the Belarusian oil refineries are working on oil, which Belarus buys in Russia at below-market prices. This is a form of Russia's support of the economy of a friendly country. In the first half of 2018, Russia exported about 9 million tons of oil to Belarus at an average of $ 50 per barrel. The market price of a barrel is $ 68. Here such arithmetic ", - the political scientist has explained in interview to" the Free press ".

Secondly, Riga for Minsk is an additional "window to Europe" for domestic goods and tourist traffic, a political analyst of the CIS-EMO international monitoring organization Stanislav Byoshok. "The expansion of interaction between the countries in these and other areas is the task of the new Belarusian ambassador in Riga, Vasily Markovich. Belarusian exporters of petroleum products or fertilizers will have an additional trade route, at least, "the expert concluded..