On Monday, Kremlin said it would “formulate” a response after Lithuania banned the rail transit of sanctioned goods between the Russian mainland and its exclave of Kaliningrad, wedged between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic coast.
“This decision is truly unprecedented, it is a violation of everything,” Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, said on Monday. “We understand that this is due to the corresponding decision of the European Union to extend sanctions to transit [good]. We also consider this illegal.”
Read more: Lithuania faces off with Russia over Kaliningrad. What’s happening?
“The situation is more than serious in this regard, and it requires a very deep analysis before formulating any measures and any decisions,” he added. “This deep analysis will be carried out over the next few days.”
In the run up to the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on Monday, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said the country was enacting sanctions.
“First of all, it's not Lithuania doing anything, it is the European sanctions that started working from June 17. The industry that is imposing the sanctions are the [Lithuanian] railroads, they informed their clients that [...] sanctioned goods [...] will no longer be allowed to transit Lithuania,” he said.
“It is done in consultation with the European Commission and under [their] guidelines,” Landsbergis added.
Later on Monday, the European Commission declined to comment, referring the matter to the EU Foreign Affairs Council.
The EU sanctions package, adopted on March 15, imposed restrictions on Russian steel and other metal products. As of Saturday, they cannot move through the EU territory, according to Lina Laurinaitytė-Grigienė, spokesperson at Lithuania's Customs Department.
“Overland transit between Kaliningrad Region and the rest of Russia is not suspended or blocked. The transit of passengers and goods not sanctioned by the EU continues,” she told BNS. “Lithuania has not imposed any unilateral, individual or additional restrictions on this transit. We have not received any additional instructions and we are not taking any additional actions.”
The ban will expand on July 10 to include cement and alcohol, according to BNS. On August 10, sanctions will also apply to coal and other solid fuel transit and expand to include oil on December 5.
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