EU needs to correct the blockade situation in Kaliningrad, says top Russian official

The European Union (EU) must address the situation with the blockade of Kaliningrad, or Russia will be free to settle the transit issue by any means, according to the Russian Chairman of the Council Commission. "The European Union needs to correct the situation with the blockade of Kaliningrad, or Russia will have its hands free to solve the issue of transit by any means," Nexta TV quoted Andrei Klimov, Head of the Commission of the Council of the Federation of Russia on Defence of Sovereignty, as saying.

Further, Konstantin Kosachev, a senior foreign policy expert and deputy head of Russia's Federation Council, posted on his Telegram channel overnight that the "incipient blockade" of Kaliningrad breaches international law. Kaliningrad is an exclave located between Lithuania and Poland.

"As an EU member state, Lithuania is violating a whole series of legally binding international legal acts," Kosachev said.

According to him, the collaboration agreement between the European Union and Russia states that no side will meddle with the other's transportation networks. After WW II, Russia's Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad, situated between Lithuania and Poland, became a component of the Soviet Union. It has a population of roughly 430,000 people and is home to Russia's Baltic sea fleet's headquarters.

Lithuania prohibits transit of sanctioned Russian goods to Kaliningrad

Lithuania has prohibited the rail transit of commodities on Western sanctions lists via its borders to Kaliningrad from June 18. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in late February, Western countries have implemented sweeping sanctions. The governor of the Russian oblast, Anton Alikhanov, stated that the restriction would apply to around half of the commodities imported into Kaliningrad. According to Alikhanov, the area, which possesses an ice-free port on the Baltic Sea, will request that Russian federal authorities take retaliatory steps against the EU countries for implementing the restriction. He also stated that he would want to have more commodities shipped to the oblast by ship.

Following "clarification" from the European Commission on the method for enforcing the sanctions, the cargo unit of Lithuania's state railways service detailed the prohibition in a letter to clients. Mantas Adomenas, Lithuania's Deputy Foreign Minister, had stated that the Ministry was awaiting clarification from the European Commission on implementing European sanctions on Kaliningrad freight transit.

According to the commission, sanctioned products and transport should still be forbidden even if they travel from one part of Russia to another via EU territory. Moscow has been sanctioned severely by the European Union, the United States, and other Western allied nations for its unjustified invasion of Ukraine.

(Image: AP)