https://www.siliconvalley.com/2022/01/30/obscure-but-crucial-commodity-fuels-geopolitical-tussle-in-eastern-europe/

KLAIPEDA, Lithuania — For nearly two decades, long freight trains laden with reddish-brown grit have rumbled into Lithuania’s main port on the Baltic Sea, providing an economic lifeline for Alexander Lukashenko, the autocratic president of neighboring Belarus.

That lifeline is to be cut Feb. 1 after a decision by the Lithuanian government to halt the wagons carrying Lukashenko’s biggest source of cash: potash fertilizer for export to Europe and beyond through the port of Klaipeda.