Lithuania mulls issuing one-off permits, allowing sanctioned goods to transit its territory to Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave on the Baltic coast.
“If there is a sudden shortage of, for example, cement for the consumption of the population in Kaliningrad, as the sanctions on cement came into force on July 10, then it would be possible to allow the delivery of cement,” Laima Liucija Andrikiene, chair of Lithuania’s parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, said.
“These would be one-off permits and there can be no quotas or anything like that,” she said.
Andrikiene said the mechanism would not mean the country going soft on sanctions against Russia.
She admitted, however, that “the pressure Russia is exerting on the European Union and its institutions, directly or through intermediaries, is obvious, as is the pressure exerted on EU member states”.
Lithuania banned the transit of steel and ferrous metals through its territory from mainland Russia to Kaliningrad after the EU sanctions, part of the fourth sanction package adopted in mid-March, came into force on June 17.
Under the current sanction package, a ban on the transit of cement, alcohol and other products entered into force on July 10.
Lithuanian officials say they have received the European Commission’s clarification, stating that the ban on sanctioned goods also includes the transit via Lithuania. The European Commission is now considering issuing new guidelines on possible transit resumption.
According to Anton Alikhanov, governor of Kaliningrad, cement is already being transported to Kaliningrad via the Baltic Sea from St Petersburg. (LRT/Business World Magazine)