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LONDON, June 21 (Reuters) – A senior ally of President Vladimir Putin told Lithuania on Tuesday that Moscow would respond to its EU-sanctioned ban on freight traffic in Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave so that Baltic state would feel the pain.
With relations between Moscow and the West at least half a century after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Lithuania banned the transit of goods sanctioned by the European Union through its territory to and from Russia. citing EU sanctions rules.
Nikolai Patrushev, a former KGB spy who is now the secretary of the Russian Security Council, said Lithuania’s “hostile” actions showed that Russia could not trust the West, which said it had broken written agreements on Kaliningrad. .
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“Russia will certainly respond to these hostile actions,” Patrushev told the state-run RIA news agency.
“Appropriate measures are being developed in an interdepartmental format and will be adopted in the near future,” he said. “Its consequences will have a serious negative impact on the population of Lithuania.”
Lithuania, a member of NATO and the European Union, said it was simply applying the agreed EU sanctions on Russia, adding that it was “ironic” to hear Moscow’s complaints given its war in Ukraine.
“No blocking”
“It is ironic to hear rhetoric about alleged violations of international treaties by a country that has possibly violated all international treaties,” Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte told reporters.
A view shows freight cars, following Lithuania’s ban on freight traffic under EU sanctions across the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad in the Baltic Sea in Kaliningrad, Russia, on June 21, 2022. REUTERS / Vitaly Nevar
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“There is no blockade of Kaliningrad,” Simonyte said. “Lithuania is implementing EU sanctions.”
Kaliningrad, formerly the port of Koenigsberg, the capital of East Prussia, was captured from Nazi Germany by the Red Army in April 1945 and ceded to the Soviet Union after World War II. It is located between NATO members Poland and Lithuania.
After Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, the United States and its allies imposed some of the strictest sanctions in modern history, a move the Kremlin made similar to a declaration of economic warfare.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has summoned EU Ambassador to Moscow Markus Ederer to formally complain. Read more
“We demanded the immediate restoration of normal traffic in Kaliningrad. Otherwise, retaliatory measures will follow,” he said.
Ederer urged Russia to refrain from “intensive steps and rhetoric” on the situation, an EU spokesman said.
“He conveyed our position on Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and explained that Lithuania is implementing EU sanctions and there is no blockade, and urged them to refrain from escalating steps and rhetoric,” he said. spokesman Peter Stano in Brussels.
Moscow calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists. Kyiv and its Western supporters say this is a false pretext for waging an unprovoked war of aggression.
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Written by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Nick Macfie and Gareth Jones
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