MOSCOW, July 14. /TASS/. Russia will continue contacts with European colleagues regarding the situation with the transit of goods to its Kaliningrad Region, and some questions are yet to be answered, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Thursday.
"Work and contacts will continue in any case, since there are still a number of questions to be answered during the dialogue," Peskov said when asked whether the Kremlin intends to seek that the problem be settled in full.
Focusing on how the Kremlin assessed the activity of agencies and concrete officials dealing with the problem, Peskov said they were "fulfilling their job functions". "This is a working situation, a crisis situation. The mechanism is functioning in a quite coordinated manner, smoothly. Let me say once again - this work must be continued, it has not yet been completed," he summed up.
On June 18, Lithuania blocked the transit of goods specified by the European sanctions to and from Kaliningrad. The Russian Foreign Ministry and the Kremlin stated that Vilnius’ actions were unlawful and contradicted international agreements. In their turn, the Lithuanian government and the EU leadership noted that the country had not introduced any unilateral or additional restrictions and was simply consistently implementing the current European sanctions.
On Wednesday, the European Commission published new guidance for EU member states regarding the transit of goods from Russia. According to the European Commission’s guidance, the rail transit of oil and petroleum products, coal, steel and iron, wood, cement, and other non-military goods to Kaliningrad is not prohibited.
Region’s Governor Anton Alikhanov specified later that the decision of the European Commission on the transit of goods lifted 80% of restrictions.