MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/. The European Union is not using the full range of tools to force Lithuania to allow the transit of goods to Kaliningrad, Russia’s Charge d’Affaires in Lithuania Sergey Ryabokon told the Rossiya 24 TV channel on Monday.
"In my opinion, the European Union, is not using the full range of tools and levers to force Vilnius to do what it should do if the EU really intends to do what it said. I don't see that," he said.
"Therefore, it's hard to say what's on their (EU’s) mind," the diplomat added.
On June 18, Lithuania announced that it froze the transit of goods by rail to and from Kaliningrad blacklisted by Europe. Later, the restrictions also affected freight transport by road. Russia’s Foreign Ministry and the Kremlin said Vilnius’ actions were illegal, contradicting international agreements. The Lithuanian authorities argue that the country has not introduced any unilateral or additional restrictions, but was only consistently applying the EU sanctions.
In late June, Reuters noted that the EU intends to exclude transit to the region through Lithuania from restrictions in order to defuse the conflict with Moscow.
Earlier on Monday, Reuters reported, citing Lithuanian customs, that Lithuania had expanded restrictions on the transit of goods to Kaliningrad through its territory, extending them to alcohol, alcohol-based industrial chemicals, wood and cement. However, later the governor of the Kaliningrad region, Anton Alikhanov, denied this, noting that Lithuania did not introduce new restrictions.
The EU’s restrictions include a ban on export from Russia and transit through the European Union’s territory of a wide range of goods, including chemicals, metals, military-technical items, fuel, construction products, commodities and much more. The effective dates of the bans on carrying different goods vary, which the European Commission said was due to the need to grant a delay for businesses to adjust.