The number of attempts to circumvent the existing Western sanctions against Russia and Belarus has increased fivefold over the past three months, from 14 in March to 74 in May, Lietuvos Geležinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways, LTG), the country’s state-owned railway group, has said.
While the group is looking into the new trends, it cannot yet say why the number of attempts to circumvent them has increased so much, Gediminas Šečkus the group’s chief resilience officer, said.
He did not rule out the possibility that this is an attempt to test the effectiveness of sanction controls.
According to Eglė Šimė, CEO of LTG Cargo, the group’s freight arm, four wagons were turned around at the Lithuanian border in March, 10 in April, and 62 in May.
Most of the infringements were related to the transport of fuel or petroleum products. LTG Cargo did not approve a single application for transport to Russia or Kaliningrad in the three months.
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