Russia threatens Lithuania with steps that will be 'felt by all its population'
Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said that Moscow will respond soon to the decision of the Lithuanian authorities to impose a transport "blockade" of the Kaliningrad region and Lithuanians will feel the consequences of these measures.
"Russia will certainly respond to such hostile actions. Relevant measures are being worked out in an interdepartmental format and will be adopted soon. Their consequences will have a serious negative impact on the population of Lithuania," Patrushev said at a meeting on national security.
According to him, the situation on the border of the Kaliningrad region is developing "amid the build-up of the North Atlantic bloc's military and intelligence near Russia’s state border and under the impact of unprecedented political, information and economic pressure from the West."
"The last example of this is Lithuania’s blockade of transit to the Kaliningrad region of a large list of goods. It was instigated by the Western countries, and violates the norms and principles of international law," Patrushev said.
Patrushev said that “this shows that one cannot trust not only the verbal statements of the West, but also written ones."
The Lithuanian national railway operator Lithuanian Railways recently notified Kaliningrad authorities that from June 18 the transit of goods that fell under the EU sanctions will not be allowed. According to the Governor of the Kaliningrad region Anton Alikhanov, this will affect from 40% to 50% of shipments, including construction materials, cement, metals, and other goods.
On June 20, Lithuania's chargé d'affaires in Russia, Virginia Umbrasene, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry.