The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said on Friday that it had received and was looking into a Russian diplomatic note on the alleged suspension of payments for Kaliningrad transit services.
“We confirm that we have received the note from the Russian Federation,” the ministry said in its reply to BNS. “We are currently examining it.”
Russia’s media reported on Thursday that the note was handed to the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry by Sergey Ryabokon, Moscow’s charge d'affaires ad interim in Vilnius.
The diplomat told the state-run Rossiya 24 TV station that operators in Russia who use the services of Lithuanian Railways are obliged to pay for freight transport, while Vilnius only accepts payments through one bank, Šiaulių Bankas, which is suspending transactions with Russia from September.
Read more: Russian envoy hands note to Lithuania over Kaliningrad transit payments
The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry did not answer BNS’ question about what explanations it had provided to Ryabokon.
The Transport Ministry and Lithuanian Railways did not provide answers to questions about the alleged suspension of payments for the Kaliningrad transit services either.
Gabriele Vasiliauskaitė, the spokesperson for the transport minister, told BNS that the ministry was still coordinating its position on the issue with the government.
Šiaulių Bankas said last week that it would stop processing payments in Russian rubles, regardless of the recipient’s country, as of August 15, and payments in any currency to or from Russia and Belarus as of September 1.
However, the bank says on its website that “exceptions to the execution of payments may be applied by prior agreement in cases where payments are made for humanitarian purposes or to ensure state functions”.
Other major Lithuanian banks – Swedbank, SEB, and Luminor – stopped handling payments between Lithuania and Russia, as well as Belarus, some time ago.
Russia resumed the transit of sanctioned goods to Kaliningrad earlier this week, about a month after Lithuania banned it based on the European Commission’s guidance issued in April.
After Russia called the restrictions a “blockade” of the Kaliningrad region and threatened to retaliate, the EU’s executive body issued new guidance in July, saying that Lithuania had to allow the movement of sanctioned goods by rail.
Read more: Lithuania and Kaliningrad – updates
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