Parliamentarians went to the discussion on the exercises "West-2017". All six deputies of the Lithuanian Seimas invited to take part in the discussion "Regional Security and Exercise" West-2017 "on September 11 in Minsk: a view from Minsk, Vilnius, Warsaw, Kiev" were denied a Belarusian visa. Belarusian authorities do not comment on this decision yet. As the co-chairman of the committee on organization of the round table, the leader of the United Civil Party (UCP) Anatoly Lebedko told in DW interview, during the whole day of September 8 Lithuanian deputies transferred the final answer several times. And as a result, the Belarusian embassy in Vilnius denied them visas without explaining the reasons. "Obviously, this is a political decision and scandal - not Belarusian-Lithuanian, but with European sound," Lebedko said..

He sees in the incident "either an attempt to teach Lithuania a lesson that takes a principled tough stance towards Minsk on many issues, or a desire to show that only the government issues licenses, to whom to discuss sensitive issues and with what composition of participants". Recall, the West-2017 exercise will be held from September 14 to 20 in Belarus and in the western territories of Russia. The US allies in Eastern Europe and Ukraine fear that these exercises could prove to be a "Trojan horse" with which Russia will leave military equipment there.

Original article: Minsk denied entry to six Lithuanian Seimas deputies.