MOSCOW, June 27. /TASS/. Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev has said Moscow could respond to Lithuania’s ban of transit to Kaliningrad by taking economic measures that have the potential to pull the plug on the Baltic nation.
"Let's face it, the restriction of transit is part of the proxy war that the West has unleashed against Russia," Medvedev said in an interview to the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper, an excerpt of which was published on Monday. "Naturally, Russia will take retaliatory measures, and they will be very tough."
He said a significant proportion of the possible retaliatory moves is economic and "is capable of pulling the plug on the Baltic neighbors that have acted in a hostile manner."
He said "the EU didn’t even insist" on such radical steps as a transit ban, realizing the possible problems.
"But Lithuania obsequiously bowed before its American benefactors, once again showing its moronic Russophobic attitudes," the official said.
Medvedev said in the interview that Russia could apply asymmetric measures, which will push the conflict into a critical escalation.
"Such an escalation is a bad choice. And it will punish the ordinary citizens of Lithuania, whose standard of living is simply squalid by European standards," according to the official. "Lithuanian politicians are trying to curry favor, while people are trying to somehow survive in this theater of the absurd. They all are performing increasingly worse".