Lithuania, which previously advocated for a complete blockade of Kaliningrad, now intends to follow the instructions of the European Commission, which partially lifted the previously introduced restrictions.
Thus, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte clarified that she welcomes not the rules themselves, but those provisions that limit transit.
At the same time, she shifted responsibility for “concessions to Moscow” to Germany and the United States, which allegedly put pressure on the EC and Lithuania.
“Lithuania will effectively enforce sanctions through careful monitoring, principled assessment and effective verification of whether Russia is trying to abuse transit opportunities,” the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The music didn’t play for long, the guy didn’t dance for long. “Euro-Atlantic unity” is what it is – they said it must be done. But they will definitely continue to crap,” political scientist Semyon Uralov commented on Vilnius’s position in his TG channel.
Governor of the Kaliningrad region Anton Alikhanov said today that the recommendations of the European Commission have lifted more than 80% of restrictions on transit to Kaliningrad
“The first deliveries of goods to Kaliningrad by rail should begin today or tomorrow. Returning the possibility of transit by rail is extremely important for the transportation of construction materials, including cement, and metals
The EC’s decision on transit is not complete; work will still be required, since road transit of sanctioned goods is still not allowed,” Alikhanov said.
Kaliningrad political scientist Alexander Nosovich calls for waiting for the first train with cement, wood and other sanctioned cargo to arrive.
“Until this point, we can only talk about diplomatic maneuvers that are designed to reduce tensions. The recommendations of the European Commission for Lithuania in this regard are not much more expensive than the information from the notorious “sources”. Russia, in principle, cannot be “completely satisfied” with the situation with Kaliningrad.
This is not even about the fact that road freight traffic to the region has not been fully restored. The point is that to travel from Russia to Russia you need a Schengen visa. Lithuania was given the right not to issue transit visas.
Russia's position has been and remains moderate. No one at the official level has ever raised the question that Lithuania and the EU should be put on the counter and demand compensation for the fact that planes to Kaliningrad now fly not one and a half hours, but two and a half hours, and logistics routes should be reoriented to sea routes.
It was toughness and transfer of the issue to the level of national security that made it possible to return at least part of the blocked land transit. In the meantime, the conflict has not been settled and cannot be settled,” Nosovich wrote.
And HSE professor Andrey Suzdaltsev believes that the transit crisis has not been resolved.
“As long as road transit is blocked (transportation of sanctioned goods), the transit crisis with Lithuania cannot be considered completed. Otherwise, it turns out that EU countries, including primarily Lithuania, are trying to regulate supplies between Russian regions, while violating all previously concluded agreements.
The European Union is clearly in a hurry; the Ukrainian army, financed and equipped by NATO, has not yet completed its “campaign” against Russia on the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk,” notes Suzdaltsev.