MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/. Russia will embark on hard-hitting, tit-for-tat measures in response to the transit ban against the Kaliningrad Region, capable of "cutting off the oxygen" to Lithuania, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with Argumenty i Fakty newspaper.
"Naturally, Russia will take retaliatory measures, and they will be very harsh. I won’t say which ones just yet. There are many possibilities, and a significant part of them are economic that can cut off the oxygen to our Baltic neighbors who have taken hostile actions," he stressed.
Medvedev described Lithuania's decision to restrict cargo passage to Kaliningrad as "part of the same 'proxy war' initiated by the West against Russia." As a result, he believes that Russia's response may be disproportionate.
"There is also the option of employing disproportionate measures, which would, of course, result in a major escalation of the conflict," Medvedev cautioned. In his opinion, an escalation like this would be a bad choice. "It would affect ordinary Lithuanians, whose standard of living is already low, and simply meagre by European standards. If you ask people in Vilnius or Kaunas what they think about such measures, you will get honest, if not particularly diplomatic responses. Lithuanian politicians are currying favors, while residents are trying to survive and get by in this ‘theater of the absurd’. And it’s getting worse and worse for both of them," the politician concluded.