Lithuania’s implementation of EU sanctions will block some rail shipments to Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave. The Kremlin is threatening retaliation.
| Russia has opened up a potential new front in its aggressive western push, threatening retaliatory “actions” against Lithuania, a Baltic country that sits under the NATO umbrella.
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielus Landsbergis said his government was merely implementing European Union sanctions that began last week. The sanctions cover goods such as coal, steel, building materials such as cement, and advanced tech.But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the “illegal move” was “really unprecedented”.And Grigory Karasin, the chairman of the Russian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, warned that any response would be “quite decisive”.
It would also cut off the land bridge between the three Baltic states - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - and the rest of NATO. This would make it more difficult for the trans-Atlantic military alliance to defend its Baltic members from a speedy Russian attack. Vilnius has been urging NATO to deploy more troops within its territory, fearing that a Russian surprise attack and occupation could be hard to reverse if there were a delay in deploying soldiers in Lithuania’s defence.German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said last week that most of the troops he had earlier promised to send to Lithuania would in fact be based in Germany, albeit ready to deploy. A sense of more imminent and direct threat to Lithuania may force him to reconsider.
The Lithuanian foreign ministry said there were no “unilateral, individual or additional” sanctions beyond those imposed at EU level.
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