Sanctioned Kaliningrad sanctions transit from the Baltic
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Kaliningrad looking to impose sanctions against the Baltic republics in an attempt to boost work at its own ports as well as increase pressure against them to lift sanctions off it.
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Shipping vessels provide Kaliningrad's ports with some much-needed activity (Getty Images)
According to Governor Anton Alikhanov on Monday, the Kaliningrad Region authorities have recommended a complete prohibition on the movement of products between the Baltic republics and Russia, with the exception of transit.
Through his Telegram channel, Alikhanov said that "We propose to impose a complete ban on the movement of goods (including transit from third countries) as a retaliatory measure between the three Baltic countries and Russia (with an exception for the Kaliningrad Region)."
Additionally, he said that the choice would fill shipping vessels and provide Kaliningrad's ports with some much-needed activity in the wake of the sanctions. On Sunday, Lithuania prohibited the transport of cement and alcohol from Russia to the Kaliningrad Region as a result of the implementation of the European sanctions.
According to Telegram channel Pul Pervogo, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone conversation on Monday in which they discussed the circumstances pertaining to the transit of goods into the Kaliningrad Region. The two counterparts also deliberated matters regarding Russian energy supplies to Europe.
Additionally, Putin and Lukashenko discussed matters pertaining to the security situation in Ukraine. The two presidents also spoke on bilateral ties between Belarus and Russia, as well as collaborative defense efforts and the development of a Belarusian port in Russia. Russian permission to develop a port in St. Petersburg was announced by Belarus in February.
Sanctioning Kaliningrad
Lithuanian authorities have announced that there has been a ban on the transit through their territory to Kaliningrad, Russia, of goods subject to sanctions imposed by the European Union starting June 18th.
News of the ban came on June 17th, with Kaliningrad governor Anton Alikhanov announcing it through a video.
The goods in question include coal, metals, construction materials, and advanced technology, and the governor said the ban would cover around 50% of the region's imports.
The decision is effective immediately as of the 18th of June, as confirmed by the cargo division of Lithuania's state railways service in a letter to its clients. The letter came after "clarifications" from the European Commission on how the sanctions would be applied.
Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described those sanctions as a "violation of everything." Later, the Russia Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev stated that the Russian authorities have succeeded to halt the activities of non-profit organizations in the country's northwest that received Western money, including plans to establish so-called "German autonomy" in the Kaliningrad region.
According to the official, the damaging activity of international non-governmental organizations and Russian non-profit organizations managed by them, which got funds from the US, the UK, Sweden, and Belgium, has ceased.
"In the Kaliningrad region, attempts to promote the project of creating the so-called German autonomy by German-controlled non-profit organizations have been neutralized," Patrushev said during a security meeting in Kaliningrad.
Read more: EU, Berlin looking to end transit ban to Kaliningrad
