KALININGRAD, June 27. /TASS/. Authorities in Russia’s western exclave of Kaliningrad will settle for nothing less than the lifting of the current ban on the transit of goods via Lithuania, the regional government’s spokesman Dmitry Lyskov told TASS.
When commenting on recent statements by the European Commission that Lithuania should apply additional checks on road and rail transit, he said: "Undoubtedly, we will settle for nothing less than "the restoration of the mechanism that was in effect until June 17. We will consider everything else to be a distortion of the situation and the very essence of the transit agreement." "That said, there should be no restrictions on the transit of non-dual-use goods to and from Kaliningrad. We view it as transit from one Russian region to another. Options other than this will be unacceptable for us," Lyskov noted, adding that the regional authorities "would like to see a final document regulating the Kaliningrad transit."
On June 18, Lithuania notified the Kaliningrad authorities of a ban on the rail transit of sanctions goods to the region. The prohibition was expanded to truck transit on June 21. The Russian Foreign Ministry and the Kremlin stated that Lithuania’s actions ran counter to international agreements. Regional Governor Anton Alikhanov said on June 24 that according to some reports, the European Union was ready to take its obligations on ensuring the transit of goods into account and refrain from banning it. However, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said later that his country was unwilling to make concessions.