Moscow alarmed over Vilnius's plans to ban transit of goods from Belarus
MOSCOW. Dec 16 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has expressed concern over the plans of Vilnius to introduce a ban on any transit traffic of goods from Belarus via Lithuania and noted that such a move could adversely affect the socioeconomic situation in Russia's Kaliningrad region.
"It is with extreme concern that we have learnt about a possible ban on transit of goods from Belarus via Lithuania," Zakharova said in a commentary on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website on Thursday.
"We believe that this is a road to nowhere, as this would affect supplies to the Kaliningrad region and make a negative impact on the economy, the social situation and the quality of life of people residing in this region of the Russian Federation," she said.
"The aforementioned restrictive measures, if enacted, will not be left without a follow-up on the part of Russia," she said.
"We are calling on partners to refrain from following the path of undermining economic ties and to make every possible effort to normalize the situation and fully meet Lithuania's international obligations with regard to ensuring Russian cargo transit to/from the Kaliningrad region, specifically, under the Russian-Lithuanian intergovernmental agreement on international road transport of 1993 and other agreements," Zakharova said in the commentary.
Zakharova also expressed perplexity over "Poland tightening its requirement regarding presentation of PCR test certificates on the Russian-Polish border, reducing their validity period to 24 hours, without notifying anybody in advance," she said.
"We certainly understand the complexities of the epidemiological situation and the need for appropriate measures to fight the pandemic. However, we believe that these kinds of steps affecting the day-to-day life of many people ought to be discussed with interested international partners, who must be notified in advance," Zakharova said in the statement.
The Lithuania Ministry of Transport and Communications, the former chief of which, Marius Skuodis, resigned amid the scandal around the transit of Belarusian fertilizers via Lithuania, earlier registered a draft bill introducing economic and other sanctions against Belarus, citing national security considerations.
The ministry has proposed imposing sanctions on goods imported from Belarus or bought directly or indirectly from that country in its document submitted to the Lithuanian government and parliament. This measure would stop transit of fertilizers from Belaruskali via Lithuania, according to the authors of the draft legislation.
The U.S. on August 9 announced sanctions against Belarusian potash fertilizer producer Belaruskali. The sanctions took effect on December 8. It was expected that they would stop the transportation of Belarusian potash fertilizers via Baltic seaports, including the main hub for Belaruskali, the port of Klaipeda. The United Kingdom also introduced sanctions targeting Belaruskali. The European Union introduced sectoral sanctions affecting shipments of some of the products of the Belarusian potash industry. Belarusian Potash Company, a trader of Belaruskali, found itself on the U.S. sanctions list in early December.