The hot air balloons spotted in the skies over Lithuania in the past few hours have brought attention back to the eastern front of the European Union. According to Vilnius, they are vehicles used by Belarus to smuggle cigarettes , which the country produces, into European countries, and the government of Inga Ruginiene considers them part of a"hybrid war" fought by Minsk against the EU on behalf of Russia.
The Belarusian opposition is also giving a similar interpretation of what is happening. Franak Viačorka, chief of staff of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, leader of Democratic Belarus and main opponent of Alexander Lukashenko's regime, has linked cigarette smuggling to the Minsk strongman. “Lukashenko is waging a hybrid war against the EU. It's not just about migrants or propaganda. Lithuania has again closed its border with Belarus. Flights to Vilnius have been disrupted again,” Viačorka wrote on X on October 25, the day balloons were reported in Lithuanian skies before the weekend.
“Cigarette smuggling from Belarus to Lithuania has become a state enterprise,” continued Viačorka, who was also an analyst for the US Agency for Global Media and serves as a bridge between the Belarusian opposition and the international community. “Factories like Neman and companies linked to the oligarch Alyaksei Aleksin, Lukashenko’s ‘wallet,’ produce billions more cigarettes than Belarusians consume.” “These excess goods are flown over EU borders aboard drones and weather balloons, hidden in trains and trucks, draining millions of EU tax revenues.”"When balloons filled with cigarettes closed Vilnius Airport, it wasn't just smuggling," Viačorka concluded."It was a test of the EU's security systems. It was an economic war disguised as smuggling."
Who is Alyaksei Aleksin? Among the most prominent Belarusian businessmen, his interests span a variety of fields. According to the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Aleksin is one of Lukashenko's key allies. An official document from the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) dated December 24, 2024, lists him among those sanctioned for having"benefited from government decisions granting him control over strategic economic sectors, particularly tobacco." Through his companies Energo-Oil and Inter Tobacco, the document further states, Aleksin has obtained exclusive concessions and direct access to customs infrastructure. Specifically, SECO considers Inter Tobacco"one of the main entities involved in tobacco production and distribution in Belarus, with privileged access to import licenses and logistics infrastructure." Hence the accusation that part of the legal cigarette production ends up in smuggling channels towards the European Union.
