Spokesperson of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ruslan Varankov, who read the statement to journalists, stressed that claims of a technical failure at the Latvian border checkpoint appear completely unconvincing.

«This appears especially unconvincing given that drivers themselves admitted they had been advised to turn back in accordance with a written order from Latvian Interior ‌Minister Janis Dombrava,» the statement says.

«Clearly, this alleged breakdown is just another link in the ongoing chain of weaponizing the border issue. The fact that the emergency shutdown was ordered personally by Interior Minister Janis Dombrava, who leads one of Latvia’s political parties, leaves no room for doubt about the political motivations behind this cynical move, coming just ahead of the 3 October parliamentary elections,» the text reads.

The same minister’s recent calls for Latvian citizens to avoid traveling to Belarus align with this very same logic.

«This comes despite substantial interest from Latvians in visiting our country,» the MFA said. «The most shocking part is that Riga has once again ignored the interests of people just to score political points. Nobody even bothered to give citizens advance warning, turning them into mere pawns in a political game. The situation is a carbon copy of the Lithuanian authorities’ blunt actions in late 2025, when the border was also shut down with zero notice under a flimsy excuse.»

«Moreover, these irresponsible moves inflict significant harm on international trade by disrupting transit routes linking the European Union, China, and Central Asian nations, while also harming Latvia’s own economic interests,» the MFA said. «In this context, Latvia’s relevant authorities might find it beneficial to launch an internal probe to determine whether the real glitch was in their IT systems or in the political bias of their leadership. Tellingly, no such ‘technical issues’ have emerged on Latvia’s border with Russia, where traffic flows uninterrupted.»

«We view this incident as another trampling of the very ‘European values’ that the Baltic states love to talk about. Citizens’ freedom of movement has once again been crudely sacrificed to immediate domestic political interests,» the Belarusian MFA said. «In any case, even if IT system failures did take place, it is hard to believe that Latvia joined the EU back then just to achieve this poor level of technological resilience.»

In response to this unfriendly move, Belarus reserves the right to take retaliatory measures against Latvia, including asymmetrical steps, to protect its national interests and citizens.

«Official Riga bears full responsibility for the consequences of such decisions,» the statement says.