Belarus leader blasts UK, Western sanctions

Belarusian authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko said Monday that Britain could "choke" on the new sanctions that it imposed on his country.

The new measures target state-owned banks and come alongside measures to prevent Belarusian air carriers flying over or landing in the UK.

Lukashenko made the remarks at his annual press conference on the one-year anniversary of the vote that handed him a sixth term in office but was denounced by the opposition and the West as rigged.

Lukashenko also lashed out at Lithuania, blaming the neighbouring country for causing problems at its border with Belarus.

Thousands of migrants, mostly Iraqis, have streamed into Lithuania - which is part of the European Union - in recent months.

Belarus has accused Lithuania in turn of using force to turn them back.

Lukashenko went on to criticise western media over their coverage of Belarus, which was shaken by months of protests triggered by Lukashenko’s re-election, saying they had "perverted everything".

Belarusian authorities responded to the protests with a relentless crackdown that saw more than 35,000 people arrested and thousands beaten by police. Leading opposition figures have been jailed or forced to leave the country.

The authorities have ramped up their crackdown on dissent in recent months, targeting independent journalists and democracy activists with raids and arrests and sometimes going to extremes such as diverting a plane to the capital of Minsk and arresting a dissident aboard.