Russia has summoned the European Union's envoy to Moscow to strongly protest new restrictions on goods shipments to its Kaliningrad exclave through EU member Lithuania while threatening the Baltic state with retaliation.
The Foreign Ministry in Moscow said on June 21 that EU Ambassador to Moscow Markus Ederer was informed of the "inadmissibility of such actions" and warned "retaliation will follow" if the restrictions aren't removed immediately. It did not elaborate.
Kaliningrad is wedged between Lithuania and Poland, where the Pregolya River feeds into the Baltic Sea. It has about 500,000 inhabitants and is connected to the rest of Russia by a rail link through Lithuania.
Vilnius shut the route for transport of steel and other ferrous metals, which it says it is required to do under EU sanctions that took effect on June 18. The EU imposed the punitive measures on Russia after it launched its ongoing invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
"Lithuania is not taking unilateral measures. It is implementing EU sanctions," Ederer said after the meeting in Moscow.
He added that there was no blockade of Kaliningrad as the transit of non-sanctioned goods to the enclave continues.
EU spokesman Peter Stano said Ederer asked the Russians at the meeting "to refrain from escalatory steps and rhetoric."
The Kremlin, meanwhile, dispatched one of President Vladimir Putin's top allies to Kaliningrad, where he warned that "appropriate measures" will be taken by Moscow "in the near future."
"Russia will certainly respond to such hostile actions," Russian Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev said at a regional security meeting in Kaliningrad.
"Their consequences will have a serious negative impact on the population of Lithuania," he warned. He also said the actions show that Russia cannot trust the West, which he said had broken written agreements over Kaliningrad.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said it was "ironic to hear rhetoric about alleged violations of international treaties" from Russia, which she accused of violating "possibly every single international treaty."
She repeated Vilnius's position that it is only implementing sanctions imposed by the EU and denied Lithuania's actions amounted to a blockade.