Lukashenko's gas threat as EU weighed new sanctions
A look back at the Belarus border crisis as it stood on 11 November 2021, with Minsk warning of gas cuts and Warsaw pointing at Moscow.
What did Minsk threaten as the Belarus–European Union border crisis deepened on 11 November 2021? Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko suggested that Belarus would halt natural gas supplies into Europe if the EU pushed ahead with further sanctions.
He said he would recommend that the leadership of Poland, Lithuanians and other "empty-headed people" think before speaking. The remark came as EU member states were due to decide the following week on new sanctions over the human trafficking that had led to the crisis.
Two days earlier, on 9 November 2021, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki had blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for orchestrating the migrant crisis on the Belarus–Poland border. He said the crisis had its mastermind in Moscow.
The two statements set out the opposing positions in the dispute: Warsaw attributing the crisis to Moscow, and Minsk answering the prospect of sanctions with a threat to energy supplies.
