Alexander Lukashenko, the self-appointed president of Belarus threatened Friday to cut off trade with Ukraine

Alexander Lukashenko, the self-appointed president of Belarus threatened Friday to cut off trade with Ukraine, reports BelTA, the state news agency. “You watch out because we could shut the border for goods coming from the Ukrainian territory,” he said, addressing Ukraine, which counts Belarus as its fourth largest trading partner nation. “And then you won’t be able to supply products to our market, you won’t even be able to process Ukrainian products in Belarus before supplying them to other markets, primarily the Eurasian one,” he said, referring to Ukraine’s transfer trade with Russia. Since declaring himself the winner last August of elections widely dismissed as fraudulent, Lukashenko has kept power through “A Reign of Terror,” The New York Times reported yesterday from Minsk.