To the extent that this fear can discourage traders from buying oil, the president may have a weak, blunt, but not altogether futile weapon against ever-rising prices that does not require lifting a finger.
Mr Lukashenka has also sabotaged the customs union with Kazakhstan and Russia, demanding that Russia scrap its export duty on oil and oil products, which would allow Belarus to buy them at Russia's domestic prices and to re-export them at a profit. (Russia wants to keep oil out of the union for now.) Russia's response is to reach for its favourite weapon: the gas taps.