How dare Lithuania block Kaliningrad, is it not afraid of death?
On the part of Lithuania, it is simply madness to interfere with Russian transit to Kaliningrad, writes the author of the Chinese edition of "Guancha". Recall that at the end of 2021, China had its own conflict with Lithuania due to the fact that a representative office of Taiwan was opened in Vilnius. So the author does not skimp on threatening warnings.
In the landfill of European history, there are several small countries that appear, then disappear, then recover again due to various wars and conflicts.
Lithuania is one of them. Over the past two years, she has shown her true face. This tiny country, which is smaller in any respect than any province of China, dares to provoke such giants as China and Russia. If Lithuania is valuable in any way, it is only by its ability to cause loud applause from Americans by its behavior.
On December 20 last year, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian stated very bluntly at a regular press conference: "Some people and certain forces in Lithuania insist on uniting with the separatist forces of Taiwan independence, thereby they have gone over to the dark side and will eventually be destroyed and thrown into the dustbin of history."
And this country, which has officially received the "garbage status" in the eyes of the most important states of the world, without being ashamed of anything, commits even more insane acts. This time Lithuania's target was the Russian exclave — Kaliningrad Region.
What does the blockade of Kaliningrad mean? For Lithuania, this is a dangerous military adventure. Pay attention to the geographical dimensions: for such a small Baltic country as Lithuania, to lose means to disappear, and to win means to dissolve in the Kaliningrad region.
Simply put, for the West, Lithuania is just a bet in a card game. And the United States wants to use it to achieve great results with small efforts.
It is clear that politicians who come to power in "democratic" elections should at least ostensibly protect the interests of voters, but people like [Lithuanian President] Gitanas Nauseda are ready to waste the country.
Lithuanian Railways recently informed the management of the Kaliningrad Railway that the transit of a number of goods subject to EU sanctions will be suspended from June 18 (oil transportation is not temporarily restricted until August 10).
As a result of these actions of Lithuania, Kaliningrad is currently unable to receive cement, metal and some vital goods from Russia and Belarus by rail.
Damage to Russia
The blockade of Lithuania causes double damage to Russia:
— The export trade route of Russian goods sent to foreign customers via the Baltic Sea through the port of Kaliningrad has been blocked;
— The material support of the Kaliningrad region and the functioning of its social facilities are in crisis.
As for this step by Lithuania, the chairman of the provisional Commission of the Federation Council for the Protection of State sovereignty and prevention of interference in the internal affairs of the Russian Federation, Andrei Klimov, warned on June 19 that the EU must lift the blockade of Kaliningrad, otherwise Russia will solve the transit problem by any possible means.
Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said on June 22 that Russia's countermeasures would make the Lithuanian people feel the real consequences of his government's rash step.
By now, European and Russian media have already analyzed possible retaliatory measures that Russia can take. There are about 5-6 of them, mainly political and economic means, such as:
Non-recognition of Lithuania's status as an independent state, that is, recognition of its illegal withdrawal from the Soviet Union during the "parade of sovereignties";
Cancellation of the agreement with the European Union on Lithuania's accession to the EU;
The demand to return the port of Klaipeda (known in Germany as Memel), which was transferred to the Soviet Union on the basis of the Potsdam Conference of 1945. Later, some time after the war, Joseph Stalin decided to give it to Lithuania. As the legal successor of the Soviet Union, Lithuania, having violated the agreement on border transportation, created the need to reconsider the ownership of the port of Klaipeda.
All these steps will shake Lithuania's status as a member of NATO, since Article VI of the Charter of this alliance states that member states should not have territorial disputes.
There are also not very effective countermeasures that I will not consider in detail, for example, "disconnection from energy and electricity". The mere possibility of such a development of events should force Lithuania to surrender without waiting for Russia's retaliatory steps, otherwise Vilnius will literally commit "suicide".
Although Russia is very powerful, it will be difficult for it to use military means against Lithuania. It is not difficult for a man to beat a dog with a stick, but it is difficult to kill a flea with a stick. In fact, China has the same problem with Lithuania.
Isn't it obvious from the very act of the Lithuanian blockade of Kaliningrad how "garbage" this country is?
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrid Shimonite said at a press conference on June 21 that the trilateral agreement between Russia, Lithuania and the EU is still in force, but Lithuania is obliged to comply with the sanctions imposed by the European Union in mid-March.
Vilnius violated its obligations, and at the same time the Prime Minister of the country spoke so sincerely and loftily. Russia did not prevent Lithuania from joining the European Union on May 1, 2004 and even reached a number of transport agreements on the Kaliningrad region with both Lithuania and the EU.
Precisely because in 2004 the three parties reached an agreement on the transportation of "goods and people" between Russia and Kaliningrad, Lithuania was admitted to the EU. That is, according to the law, Vilnius has no right to block this land transport line on the grounds that there is a contradiction between Europe and Russia.
Otherwise, Lithuania could have followed the EU a long time ago and cut the supply line to Kaliningrad eight years ago, when the Crimean issue arose.
In addition, in March, the EU published a list of goods that are subject to an embargo due to the Ukrainian crisis, but for some reason Lithuania did nothing then, and it is now that it has begun to act. How to explain this delay? The fact that all Lithuanian politicians knew that the effect of the "trilateral agreement" for Lithuania and its economy is more important than the sanctions policy.
However, since Vladimir Zelensky and his administration are now clearly not the advancing and holding the initiative side in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and Ukraine is losing more and more territories, the United States decided to open a "second battlefield".
It was here that Lithuania allegedly came up with its own initiative. NATO and the European Union immediately came out in support of it. Their positions were clearly coordinated in order to divert Russia's attention from Ukraine, forcing Moscow to focus on Lithuania and Kaliningrad.
The US is just using Lithuania. Let's list the reasons.
Firstly, Lithuania is a member of both NATO and the European Union, and if Russia uses military force to fight Vilnius, this conflict will differ in essence from the Ukrainian one.
Joe Biden has repeatedly stressed that NATO will not send any of its soldiers to Ukraine, and on June 20, the head of the alliance repeated the words. A signal is being sent to Russia, as it were: "Just try to attack Lithuania."
Secondly, Kaliningrad was originally a strategic military fortress of the Soviet Union. After rearmament in 2008, strategic weapons were placed here — Iskander missiles with nuclear warheads, S-400 air defense systems, as well as short- and medium-range missiles and other weapons.
Offensive weapons here are not aimed at Lithuania or Poland, but are used to deter London, Paris, Rome, Berlin... and not only.
Kill a Lithuanian flea
The Russian army cannot attack Lithuania directly from Kaliningrad, because then it will have to face Poland. If Russia decides to send troops to help Kaliningrad, then they will have to be transferred in transit through Belarus.
The United States, in turn, takes into account the following two points:
First, Putin may not dare to attack a NATO member because of the Ukrainian crisis;
Secondly, will Belarus agree to provide transit or even organize a joint Russian-Belarusian grouping? Putin and Lukashenko will also need time to coordinate. Although Belarus was ready to cooperate with the Russian army on Ukraine, Lithuania is a member of NATO, and Lukashenko will be extremely careful.
That's why this flea — Lithuania — is so hard to fight, and it is the favorite pawn of the United States. And with the threat to Lithuania, will there be any losses for America, Germany, France, the European Union and NATO? No, there are none.
The United States pursues another goal: by blocking the Kaliningrad transport highway, they want to destroy the logistics corridor between China and the European Union.
On May 29, the first shipment of container trains from Chengdu to Kaliningrad was sent. The owner of the cargo is the Russian transport group FESCO. It was expected that the delivery would take about 20 days — the cargo would pass through China, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Lithuania, and finally arrive in Kaliningrad, and then be sent further through the Baltic Sea.
Initially, it was a trade agreement beneficial to China, Russia and Europe, but it just so happened that on June 18 Lithuania announced that it would close the railway line, which would probably affect supplies coming from Chengdu.
In fact, this whole step is very beneficial for Lithuania, because no one can accuse it of deliberately spoiling relations with China or Russia. As mentioned above, this is only its contractual obligation under the Russia-Europe-Lithuania trilateral agreement, and it must comply with EU sanctions.
But international law explicitly guarantees the right of all countries to travel to their exclaves and considers any obstruction of the exercise of this right as deliberate aggression. But Lithuania seemed to have gone crazy: it is not interested in the transit of goods and openly provokes Russia.
Without the "leadership" of the United States behind this, would Lithuania have such a "strategic vision"? This shows that the leaders of this henchman country are completely controlled by Washington. And when the situation turns out to be too dangerous, Lithuania will be thrown by the States into the dustbin of history without any remorse.