The state enterprise “Lithuanian Railways” intends to completely abandon the transportation of goods from Russia and Belarus through the territory of the republic. This was announced to journalists on March 1 by the company’s CEO Egidijus Lazauskas.
“We do not want <…> earn money at any cost. The maximum removal from these markets (Russia and Belarus. – Ed.) Is one of our main priorities, ”the portal quotes him as saying. Delphi.
He clarified that the impossibility of effective control over the transportation of goods included in the sanctions lists may become a prerequisite for the complete rejection of Russian and Belarusian cargo.
“If we see that we cannot provide effective control, it is easier to completely block this flow,” Lazauskas added.
Such a comment was made against the backdrop of a scandal involving the confiscation in Lithuania of €2 million worth of urea fertilizers produced at the Grodno Azot plant, which is subject to sanctions.
In June 2022, a ban on the transit of a number of goods to the Kaliningrad region from Lithuania came into force. Vilnius explained it by the implementation of the fifth package of sanctions against Russia. Later, the European Commission published clarifications on the transit of goods subject to Western sanctions. They state that rail transport is permitted subject to a number of conditions. Quotas were introduced for the transportation of sanctioned goods by rail, the volume for the year should not be higher than the average volume for the last three years.
At the same time, in December 2022, the governor of the Kaliningrad region, Anton Alikhanov, said that Kaliningrad shippers were afraid to use the railway because of the unpredictable behavior of Lithuania.
In addition, Alikhanov noted that Lithuania has complicated the procedure for obtaining simplified transit documents for residents of the Kaliningrad region.
