Belarusian-Lithuanian Relations: How Politics Beats the Economy

The article analyses the dynamics of Belarusian-Lithuanian relations in the post-Soviet period. The historical, cultural and political-economic aspects of the relationship between the two countries are considered. It is noted that Lithuania is the second most active European player in Belarus after Poland. The author emphasises the historical aspect of the relationship between the two countries and demonstrates how different interpretations of the heritage of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania affect the modern relationship between the two states and their peoples. We are talking primarily about the heritage of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Lithuanian myth generates competition between the two countries, but at the same time forms an idea of the common space of their historical destinies, which fuels Westernising and pro-European sentiments among a part of Belarusian society. The author notes that Lithuania’s foreign policy towards Belarus is dominated by an ideological approach. Lithuania tries to play the role of an operator of democratic changes and the Western geopolitical turn of its eastern neighbor. In this niche a strong competition with Poland and the traditional xenophobia of Lithuanian society towards the Slavs limit the possibilities of Lithuanian influence on Belarus. For its part, Minsk was focused on pragmatic cooperation with Lithuania in the economic sphere and put issues of politics and ideology aside. In particular, Belarus had high hopes for cooperation in the field of energy and transit. The discrepancy between these approaches determines the tense and conflict nature of relations between the two countries.