Kaliningrad. June 21. INTERFAX-AVN - Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev said that Moscow will soon respond to Vilnius' decision to declare a transport "blockade" of the Kaliningrad region, and Lithuanian residents will seriously feel the consequences of these measures.
"Russia will certainly react to such hostile actions. Appropriate measures are being worked out in an interdepartmental format and will be taken in the near future. Their consequences will have a serious negative impact on the population of Lithuania," Patrushev said at a meeting on national security issues in Kaliningrad on Tuesday.
According to him, the situation in the border area on the territory of the district is being formed "in the conditions of the North Atlantic Bloc's military and intelligence presence near the state border of Russia, as well as under the influence of unprecedented political, informational and economic pressure from the West."
"The latest example of this is Lithuania's blockade by Western countries, in violation of the norms and principles of international law, of transit through its territory to the Kaliningrad Region of a large group of goods," Patrushev said.
This example, according to him, "shows that one cannot trust not only the oral statements of the West, but also written ones, too."
On June 17, as the governor of the Kaliningrad Region Anton Alikhanov reported earlier, Lithuanian railways notified the Kaliningrad Railway that from June 18 they would stop transit to and from the Kaliningrad Region of "a large list of goods that fall under European sanctions." According to him, according to preliminary estimates, this applies to 40% to 50% of the entire range of transit cargo. These are construction goods, cement, metals and other important goods.
On June 20, the Charge d'affaires of Lithuania in Russia, Virginia Umbrasene, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry. "The head of the diplomatic mission has expressed a strong protest in connection with the ban imposed by Vilnius without prior notification of the Russian side on the rail transit of a large range of goods through the territory of Lithuania to the Kaliningrad region. They demanded the immediate cancellation of these restrictions," the message published on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The Russian Foreign Ministry "stated in this regard that if cargo transit between the Kaliningrad Region and the rest of the Russian Federation via Lithuania is not fully restored in the near future, then Russia reserves the right to act to protect its national interests."
Lithuania, for its part, stated that it had not imposed unilateral restrictions, since such a ban is provided for by EU sanctions. They were imposed on Russia in connection with its actions in Ukraine. "Passengers and goods that are not covered by the EU sanctions regime continue to be transported through the territory of Lithuania to and from the Kaliningrad region. Lithuania has not imposed any unilateral, individual or additional restrictions on this transit. Lithuania consistently implements EU sanctions, which have different transition periods and effective dates," the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said on June 20.
