The Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday blamed the US for Lithuania’s decision to enforce EU sanctions on goods traveling through its territory bound for Kaliningrad, the Russian enclave sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland.
“The so-called ‘collective West’, with the explicit instruction of the White House, imposed a ban on rail transit of a wide range of goods through the Kaliningrad region,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the US has led a Western sanctions campaign against Moscow, although it’s not clear if the US explicitly told Lithuania to place the embargo on Kaliningrad. Lithuanian officials said the decision was made after consultations with the EU’s European Commission.
Comments from Lithuania’s president suggest that the Baltic nation wouldn’t have gone through with the embargo if it weren’t a treaty ally with the US under NATO. “I do not believe that Russia will challenge us in a military sense, because we are a NATO member,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said when discussing potential Russian retaliation.
Kaliningrad officials have estimated that the ban will impact between 30-50% of goods that travel to the enclave through Lithuania by rail, and they plan to offset the ban by rerouting sanctioned goods to be shipped by sea. The restrictions apply to coal, steel, caviar, alcohol, and other goods. It is expected to expand to more items as the EU is planning more sanctions against Russia.
Kaliningrad Governor Anton Alikhanov said Friday that he expects the EU will amend its sanctions to include exemptions for the Russian enclave. He said the EU has made previous commitments guaranteeing the transit of goods to Kaliningrad.
It is only a statement of fact. Without Zionist America’s orders Lithuania would never dare to make any move against Russia
This is a violation of their own sanction rules. Butvwgen do the Neos care about rules. These goods have nothing to do with Lithuania, as by definition they are transit from Russia to Russia. These are so called “sealed trains”, and Lithuania has no jurisdiction accirding to EU rules governing such transits.
The question is, whatvdo they do with goids on the “prohibited” list? Do they send train back to remove the offending cargi? Do they confiscate it? What do they do with personal cars crossing from Russia into Kalunungrad through Lithuanian territory?
When China sends a cargo train to Europe it crosses Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland and gets into German town of Duisburg — a massive land port, from where train conainers get directed to different trains and on to customers all over Europe. There are sealed trains, and WTO rules on tariffs apply, all pricessed without trains being subject to delays at borders. When it comes to exclaves, there are no tariffs— because goods technically have not left Russia.
Violatins of transit rules is a real message to the world on how this new “rules based order” actually functions!
It really is shameful, but then shame means nothung to people uncapable of feeling it .
Escalation is the strategy, sanctions are jsut a tactic. Puts Russia on the defensive and on the road to further war and devastation. This Neocon 30 yr Grande Game has gotten so bloody outrageous that I keep thinking, at some point the strategic Washington institutions will begin to loose their nerve, … maybe France? maybe Italy? maybe Justice Thomas? Bernie? NYT? UN, … find a backbone and begin to break away?
On March 26 U.S. President Joe Biden called for regime change in Russia: Speaking in Warsaw, Poland, President Biden said of Russian President Vladimir Putin: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”
Russia will never forget or forgive this. This war that the Western powers started will not end in the Ukraine, they will come for us all. We declared war on Russia, a war they will now happily play out to its bitter end.
It’s been apparent for some time that the U.S. government (my government) is determined to dismantle the Russian Federation. They almost took the Black Sea naval base in 2014 and are still trying to take it. They have been interfering in the Caucasus for decades and are trying to ramp that up by admitting Georgia into NATO (they’ve already started the arming and training part and the interefering in their domestic politics part).
A case could be made that the break up of the Russian Federation would be a good thing but only if done peacefully and voluntarily, not as a result of the aggressive imperial power from the other side of the globe constantly stirring up trouble
How many of those successor states would retain nukes? Given the USA’s aggressive actions my guess is a number of those states would keep them. Few realize that Putin is the moderate in the RF. Successors are likely to be much more unstable.
If the people who run this country have anything to do with it, the consequences could indeed be horrific. We should just stay out of it and allow them work things out for themselves
Of course the US is behind this. It is proudly and assertively the leader.
Lithuania follows, and begs for the US to send troops and weapons.
Soon, it will be begging for economic support, as its economy shuts down.
We don’t care about the 236,000 children that have perished in Yemen, we should care about the citizens of that little country?
That seems like an awful low number. I remember them predicting 400,000 for 2021 alone.
Who else is there to blame…?!
This is so funny.
Hope you’re still laughing when the bombs fall.
seems unnecessarily confrontational, the Balitics really don’t like the Russians
I’ll be watching natural gas flows to Poland, since that’s the source for Lithuania. Let them rely solely on their LNG… at 4 times the cost.
Russia needs to hold out at least until end of 2024.
I sense every effort is made to make Biden a war time president.
https://www.rt.com/russia/557833-lithuania-kaliningrad-transit-stance/
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60751080
It seems the Lithuanians are taking an extreme position. How often do you suppose Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman discuss oil-related issues?
A big part of this announcement is for Russian domestic consumption. It sounds very similar to the spin and slant we hear from our own domestic media. Media on either side will not be happy until there is wider a shooting war. Then they will have more stories to report about it.
A big part of this announcement is for Russian domestic consumption. It sounds very similar to the spin and slant we hear from our own domestic media. Media on either side will not be happy until there is wider a shooting war. Then they will have more stories to report about it.