“This decision is unprecedented. It breaks everything,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said
The Kremlin today described as “unprecedented” Lithuania’s decision to ban the transit of certain goods to Russia’s Kaliningrad region and threatened retaliation, Reuters reported.
Lithuanian authorities have banned the transit through its territory of goods covered by EU sanctions against Russia, including coal, metals, construction materials and modern technology. The only land route from Russia to the Kaliningrad semi-exclave on the Baltic Sea is via Lithuania.
“This decision is unprecedented. It breaks everything,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. He said Vilnius’ decision was illegal and “the situation is more than serious” and Moscow would have to conduct an in-depth analysis to prepare Russia’s response.
The governor of the Kaliningrad region (formerly East Prussia) said the ban by Lithuanian authorities would affect half of all goods arriving from Russia by rail.
As early as Sunday, Moscow reacted angrily to the restrictions imposed by Lithuania. The “nascent blockade” of Kaliningrad is in violation of international law, wrote Konstantin Kosachev, a prominent Russian senator who is also deputy head of the Council of the Russian Federation, in his Telegram profile.
“As an EU member state, Lithuania is in violation of a number of legally binding international legal acts,” Kosachev added. As an example, he cited the EU-Russia partnership agreement, which he said provided that neither side could interfere with the other’s transport network.
Kaliningrad Governor Anton Alikhanov said in a video address yesterday that “these steps are illegal and could have far-reaching consequences for Lithuania and the EU.” According to him, the restrictions will affect about 40% to 50% of all goods, such as construction materials and metals.
For several weeks now, Russian state television has been calling for Russia to establish a “corridor” from the main part of its territory to Kaliningrad, the DPA notes. In practice, this would mean a Russian attack on NATO members Latvia and Lithuania.
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