MOSCOW, July 14. /TASS/. Lithuania may continue with its confrontational moves against Russia, but Moscow is ready for that, Russian Charge d'Affaires ad Interim in Lithuania Sergey Ryabokon told the Rossiya-24 TV channel on Thursday.
"We should expect further defiant actions, perhaps there will be conclusions on their part <...>," he said, explaining that Moscow would hit back.
Lithuania will continue to try to "test Moscow for its capabilities," the diplomat noted. "What can we expect from them in the future? <...> They will continue to test our capabilities, trying to hit where it hurts," the diplomat said.
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
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. Following the publication of the guidance, Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry said that Vilnius assesses it positively and "will effectively ensure the application of sanctions by closely monitoring, principally and effectively verifying whether Russia is attempting to abuse its transit possibilities."
Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moscow would closely monitor the EU’s steps on the Kaliningrad transit issue. She also noted that while the European Commission’s decision displayed "realism and common sense," the Russian Federation still had questions about the content of the document.