Lithuania registered 42 Belarusian tractors last year, which is about twice less than the year before, LNK žinios reported on Saturday.

According to their data, in 2023 there will be 95 such tractors registered in the country, in 2022 - 228, and in 2021 - 262.

Agriculture Minister Ignas Hofmanas told the news agency that Belarusian tractors can be registered in Lithuania if they have already been registered in the European Union.

„These are not new tractors. Yes, we do register Belarusian tractors, but only those that have been previously registered in any other country of the Community," said Mr Hofmanas.

Democrat Kęstutis Mažeika, the chairman of the Seimas Committee on Rural Affairs, told the News that dozens of advertisements are publicly available in Lithuania, in which Belarusian tractors are offered for sale by various companies.

„Surely those tractors are not produced anywhere else and it seems that some kind of sanctions barrier is not working“, – said K. Mažeika.

Belarusian MTZ and „Belarusian tractors are produced by the state-controlled Minsk Tractor Plant.

As previously reported, it indirectly owns the Vilnius-based tractor trading company „MTZ Tractor“, which is subject to European Union sanctions from 2020 due to its links to President Aliaksandr Lukashenko.

Virginijus Liberis, the company's head, told BNS in 2022 that the sanctions prevented the company from accessing funds. In April 2023, the sole shareholder of „MTZ Traktoriaus“ suspended the company's operations for five years.