MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. Lithuania, with the European Union’s consent, has decided to "take Russia’s westernmost Kaliningrad Region hostage" by restricting railway service with the exclave, a senior Russian lawmaker said on Monday.

"Lithuania has divulged that it is restricting railway transit to the Kaliningrad Region from June 18 due to the anti-Russian sanctions. According to Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, this decision was made after consultations with the European Commission. Does it mean that with the European Union’s consent, Vilnius has decided to declare a blockade and take the entire Russian region hostage? And what about international law, Lithuania’s obligations, the norms of the agreements of the European Union and the World Trade Organization?" Leonid Slutsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) and chairman of the international affairs committee of the Russian State Duma (lower parliament house), wrote on his Telegram channel.

He cited European foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who said that one "cannot compare the situation of Kaliningrad with the situation in Ukraine," since "the rest of the world will not be affected by what is happening in Kaliningrad, but the rest of the world is very much affected by what is happening in Ukraine."

"Cynicism and hypocrisy again. Brussels cares little about the lives of people in Kaliningrad just the way it did not care about people in Donbass. Russia reserves the right to take actions to defend its national interests and its sovereignty. And this was conveyed to Lithuania’s charge d’affaires," Slutsky noted.

Governor Anton Alikhanov of the Kaliningrad Region reported earlier that Lithuanian officials had informed the region’s railway authorities of a ban on the transit of a range of goods through their territory due to the EU’s anti-Russian sanctions from June 18.