VILNIUS, October 2. /TASS/. All basic mechanisms of the Russian-Lithuanian bilateral cooperation are not working because Vilnius is sparing no effort to ruin them, Russian Ambassador to Lithuania Alexander Udaltsov said on Friday.
"The Lithuanian authorities have practically wrecked all key mechanisms of cooperation, presenting it as a kind of "punishment" for Russia," he said in an interview with the Russian-language Express-nedelya weekly.
Thus, the work of the intergovernmental commission of trade-and-economic, scientific-and-technical, humanitarian and cultural ties, and the council on long-term cooperation between regional and local authorities of Russia’s Kaliningrad region and Lithuania has been stalled. Vilnius is even dodging signing generally accepted bilateral agreements in the spheres of culture, science, education and sports. "Relations between our countries have become a hostage to the activities, last but not least, of the Lithuanian foreign ministry," the ambassador said.
But, in his words, despite Vilnius’ policy towards distancing from Russia in all spheres, Russia is still Lithuania’s number one trade partner. And as for Russia, Lithuania accounts for mere 0.6% of its foreign trade. "The lack of dialogue and deliberate worsening of bilateral ties have hit the Lithuanian side even more. Peanut politics always have their price and consequences," Udaltsov stressed.
According to the Russian diplomat, Moscow is ready for building relations with Lithuania on the basis of respect to sovereignty, pragmatism, predictability, non-confrontational advocacy of national interests, and non-interference into each other’s domestic affairs. But this movement should be reciprocal, he noted.
"Corresponding intention is needed on both sides. We do have it so far," he said. "I say ‘so far’ because the partners’ behavior may tell on the viability of this term. But the Lithuanian side seems to have none.".