One of President Vladimir Putin’s top allies warned Lithuania on Tuesday that Russia would respond to the EU-ratified transit of goods in the Kaliningrad enclave in such a way that NATO and EU citizens could feel it. With East-West relations at a low half-century due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Lithuania has banned the transit of goods imposed by the European Union through Lithuanian territory to and from the enclave, citing EU sanctions rules. Nikolai Patrushev, a former KGB spy who is now secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said Lithuania’s “hostile” actions showed that Russia could not trust the West. “Russia will certainly respond to such hostile actions,” Patrushev was quoted as saying by the state-run RIA news agency. “The appropriate measures are being prepared in an inter-service form and will be taken in the near future,” he was quoted as saying. “Their consequences will have a serious negative impact on the population of Lithuania.” Kaliningrad, the former port of Koenigsberg, the capital of East Prussia, was occupied by Nazi Germany by the Red Army in April 1945 and ceded to the Soviet Union after World War II. It is among the members of NATO, Poland and Lithuania. Lithuania has said that banning the transit of goods subject to sanctions through its territory was merely an imposition of EU sanctions, part of a series of measures aimed at punishing Putin for invading Ukraine. Russia’s foreign ministry has summoned EU Ambassador to Moscow Marcus Enterer over what the Kremlin said Monday was “extremely serious.” “Lithuania is not taking unilateral action – it is imposing EU sanctions,” Enterer was quoted as saying by RIA. Russia has said it has launched what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine to disarm its neighbor and protect Russian-speaking people there from dangerous nationalists. Kyiv and its allies rejected it as an unfounded pretext for an aggressive war. (Written by Guy Faulconbridge · Edited by Nick Macfie)
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