The Lithuanian president warned that the escalation of tension would not benefit either side.
The President of Lithuania Gitana Naouseda He said his country was ready for retaliation from Russia after banning the transit of certain EU-sanctioned goods from its territory to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. The Lithuanian president warned that the escalation of tension would not benefit either side.
“We are ready and prepared for any kind of hostile action on the part of Russia, disengagement from the BRELL system or other actions,” Nauseda told Reuters. The BRELL system is a common electricity grid between Russia, Belarus and the Baltic states.
He said, however, that he did not believe in Russia will challenge Lithuania militarily, because his country is a member of NATO.
Gitanas Nauseda defended the decision to block the passage of certain goods, saying that what was decided at European Union level applies.
“We are just applying the sanctions imposed at European Union level, and that has nothing to do with bilateral relations between Russia and Lithuania,” Nauseda said.
“We are looking forward to the implementation of the next stages of sanctions and it would be very good for the European Commission to explain the content of the sanctions to the Russian authorities and this will probably remove some tensions that arise at the moment,” he added.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov said retaliation for Vilnius’s stance was being discussed. Peshkov did not specify what those measures might entail, adding that there was no exact timetable for Moscow’s response.
Moscow’s response to Lithuania’s ban on transit of goods subject to European Union sanctions against the Russian enclave Kaliningrad It will not be purely diplomatic, but also of a practical nature, said for her part the representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova.
“One of the key questions was whether the answer would be purely diplomatic. The answer: no “, said Zakharova during a briefing for reporters. “The answer will not be diplomatic, but practical.”
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