“This is not a blockade.” Borrell on the situation with the Kaliningrad transition

European Union no intention To block communication between the Kaliningrad region and the rest of the territory of the Russian Federation – on Thursday, June 23, we are talking about measures to prevent a possible circumvention of sanctions, said Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

“The situation in Kaliningrad is not a blockade. We do not want to block traffic between Kaliningrad and Russia.

But at the same time, we need control to avoid circumventing the sanctions imposed by the EU. And that should be done at the same time, it’s possible,” he said.

blocked pass

On June 18, Lithuanian railways stopped transit of goods subject to EU sanctions. We’re talking about the restrictions imposed by Brussels on March 15 – fourth pack restrictive measures against the ground Special military operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine.

The day before, Alla Ivanova, head of the Kaliningrad regional agency for international and interregional relations, said that changes or additional clarifications to EU sanctions documents could solve the problem of transit from Russia through Lithuania.

According to him, there are three ways to resolve the situation diplomatically. DEA News”. The first option is to complete the Art Dictionary. 1 of EU document 833/2014 with the concept of “Transition of people and goods to Kaliningrad”.

Secondly, the explanations of “including transit” and “provided that the transportation of this goods is prohibited by this document” are excluded from the articles of the sanction document. Finally, Ivanova concluded that clarifications could be sent to the Lithuanian customs authorities regarding the non-applicability of the Articles to the Kaliningrad goods transit.

Lithuanian authorities deny violations of the transit agreement with the Russian Federation and claim that they only comply with EU restrictions.

The fact that Moscow is considering several options for responding to the restriction on the passage to the Kaliningrad region was previously reported by the press secretary of the President of Russia, Dmitry Peskov. However, he thought it was premature to talk about certain measures.

“Suwalk Corridor”

Against this background, Warsaw does not yet see the prospects of aggression from Russia, but they are worried about the “Suwalki corridor”, declaration Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. He reminded that the Republic is a NATO member.

“I don’t think Russia would dare raise a hand against the strongest military alliance,” said the head of the Polish Cabinet.

However, Morawiecki added that from a military point of view he sees the “Suwalki corridor” as the most vulnerable direction – a hypothetical land “corridor” about 100 km long, which could connect the territory of Belarus to the Kaliningrad region. Now there, near the town of Suwalki, is the border between Poland and Lithuania.

“From a strategic point of view, based on the location of the Kaliningrad region, NATO strategists view the Suwalki corridor as one of the critical places on the North Atlantic Alliance map.

This issue is specifically addressed in both our NATO plans and our domestic military plans. Therefore, our military presence there is very strong. NATO international forces are also stationed there, not far from the “Suwalki corridor”, so our security is appropriate and adequate,” the Polish prime minister said.