“Russia, of course, will react to these hostile acts. Appropriate measures are being worked out at the interministerial level and will be adopted shortly,” Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council, said during a visit to Kaliningrad.
“They will have serious negative consequences for the population of Lithuania“, he added, quoted by the Interfax agency.
On Monday, Russia said Lithuania had introduced restrictions on rail freight to the Kaliningrad region over the weekend as part of European sanctions over the Ukraine offensive.
It is strategic and militarized enclaveheadquarters of the Russian fleet in the Baltic Sea, borders Lithuania and Poland, two members of NATO and the European Union that have strongly supported Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict.
In reaction, the head of the EU delegation to Russia, Markus Ederer, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Moscow on Tuesday.
In a statement, the diplomacy of Russia on Tuesday accused the EU of encouraging an “escalation” and demanded the immediate restoration of transit to Kaliningrad.
It was pointed out “the inadmissibility of such actions, which violate the legal and political obligations of the European Union and lead to an escalation of tensions,” the statement stressed.
Denouncing a “blockade”, the governor of Kaliningrad, Anton Alikhanov, estimated that between 40% and 50% of the enclave’s imports could be subject to restrictions, from coal to metals, through construction materials and technological goods.
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