Russia openly threatens Lithuania because of the ban on the transit of goods

Chargé d’Affaires of Lithuania Virginija Umbrasiene summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia in connection with the ban on the transit of goods by rail through the territory of Lithuania to the Kaliningrad region. This was reported by the press service of the Russian Foreign Ministry on Monday, June 20.

“Head of the diplomatic mission a strong protest was made in connection with the ban imposed by Vilnius without prior notice from the Russian side on the rail transit of a large range of goods through the territory of Lithuania to the Kaliningrad region”the message says.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded “the immediate lifting of these restrictions.”

“We regard the provocative measures of the Lithuanian side, which violate the international legal obligations of Lithuania, primarily the Joint Statement of the Russian Federation and the European Union on transit between the Kaliningrad region and the rest of the territory of the Russian Federation of 2002, as openly hostile. If in the near future cargo transit between the Kaliningrad region and the rest of the territory of the Russian Federation through Lithuania will not be restored in full, then Russia reserves the right to actions to protect their national interests“– threatened the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Earlier, the Segodnya website reported that the Lithuanian Railways from Saturday, June 18, stopped the transit of sanctioned cargo between the Kaliningrad region and the main territory of Russia.

Details

Almost 50 percent of all cargo delivered from Russian regions fell under the EU ban.

The Lithuanian railway operator LTG Cargo received clarifications from the European Commission, according to which, even if the sanctioned goods and cargoes go from one part of Russia to another, but through the territory of the EU, their transportation should still be prohibited.

The preliminary ban will affect 40-50% of the range of goods that were previously transported between the exclave and the rest of Russia. Among the most common cargoes:

• building materials;
• cement;
• metals.

To compensate for the lack of a commercial rail link, the Russian Federation may look for additional ships that will run between Ust-Luga in the Leningrad region and the ports of the Kaliningrad region.

We also informed that after the Kremlin began a bloody war in Ukraine, many Lithuanian companies began to refuse to import Russian oil and natural gas. And on April 3, Prime Minister of Lithuania Ingrida Simonyte announced that Lithuania would no longer “consume a single cubic meter of toxic Russian gas.”