Polish farmers lift blockade on border crossing with Lithuania

VILNIUS. March 11 (Interfax/BNS) - Polish farmers have ended the protest on the border with Lithuania that they began on March 1 and vehicles are no longer being checked on the road, the spokesman for the State Border Guard Service of Lithuania, Giedrius Misutis told BNS on Thursday.

"The news is that the protest has ended," Misutis said, remarking that there were no problems at the Lithuania border during the nearly week-long protest. "We can say that everything went smoothly," he said.

During the partial blockade of the international highway on which the former Kalvarija-Budzisko border checkpoint is located, Polish police, customs authorities and road transport inspectors checked trucks. However, on March 4 the Lithuanian authorities already said that protesters' enthusiasm was waning, as the inspections did not find any violations. About 6,000 trucks use this route daily.

Poland earlier imposed restrictions on imports of Ukrainian grain, but farmers feared that some grain was being sent to Lithuania and then imported into Poland as Lithuanian product. Lithuanian officials rejected Polish farmers' accusations that there was insufficient control over grain shipments.