Russian Pressure Force Opens Rail route to Kaliningrad From Lithuania
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Roshan Amiri
- . July 23, 2022
- . Update: July 24, 2022 12:01 am
Russia–Lithuania has now agreed to open its rail link for the Russian area of Kaliningrad. The annexed portion falls on Baltic Sea and uses the link to transport people and freight via Lithuania to Russia.
On EU sanction on goods and services, the transport lines were disrupted and halted but on Russian insistence, Lithuania has resumed the services. It was (as usual) after Russia threatened to respond in action as it was enraged when Lithuania having banned the transit of steel and other ferrous metals under EU sanctions last month.
Transportation will now be open to this exclave. The European Union last week had said that the transit ban would only affect road, not rail, transit, and Lithuania should therefore allow Russia to ship concrete, wood and alcohol across EU territory to Kaliningrad.
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Transit routes are the lifeline for Kaliningrad; so, they are heavily dependent on rail routes. In June, Lithuania began implementing EU sanctions on certain Russian goods – including construction materials – in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It would not allow the goods to transit through Lithuanian territory to Kaliningrad.
This angered Moscow, and Russian security council chief Nikolai Patrushev threatened a “serious negative impact on the population of Lithuania”. The sanctions and control over Kaliningrad were a huge insult to Kremlin more so because the annexed portion is being used for docking of Russia’s Baltic fleet. It is worth noting that it has no borders with Russia; so, control becomes easy.
The region does have a regional governor. Kaliningrad has an estimate population of some one million people who rely heavily on imports of raw materials and spare parts from Russia and the EU. Regional governor Anton Alikhanov said the ban would cover around 50% of the items that Kaliningrad imports.
