Freight trains in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad in a picture taken June 21
Image: Reuters
Moscow accuses Lithuania of a blockade because it implements EU sanctions that impede the transport of goods to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. The conflict dates back to the time of Lithuania’s accession to the EU.
An the weekend, Kaliningrad’s governor, Anton Alikhanov, tried to calm the situation: there was no reason to panic, the region was well supplied with everything it needed; There is no reason to hoard cement or fuel, he personally takes responsibility for that, he said in a message to residents of the Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea. According to reports from the region, they reacted to the news on Friday evening that the Lithuanian railways no longer brought goods subject to EU sanctions to Kaliningrad via Lithuanian territory with panic buying. In an interview on Russian television, Alikhanov said that the situation was, of course, “extremely unpleasant”, but not a catastrophe: “We have prepared for something like this.” There are enough free ships to take everything that is necessary from the port of Ust- To bring Luga near Petersburg to Kaliningrad.
In Moscow, however, at the beginning of the week a tone was struck that is the opposite of calming down. In the Russian state media there is talk of a “de facto blockade” of the Kaliningrad region by Lithuania. President Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that the Lithuanian decision was “a violation of everything” and that the situation was “more than serious”. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow accused Lithuania of violating international legal agreements, in particular the “Joint Declaration” of the EU and Russia on transit to the Kaliningrad region from November 2002. This was described as “openly hostile”. The spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry explained that Lithuania must understand “the most important thing”: If Russia has declared a country’s actions “hostile”, “then it’s no longer about talks, it’s no longer about finding any formulas that can calm the situation “.