Kaliningrad authorities urged to change EU sanctions to restore transit

KALININGRAD: Minister - Head of the Regional Agency for International and Interregional Relations Alla Ivanova noted that it is necessary to make changes to the EU sanctions document 833/2014, in particular, to supplement the glossary with the concept of "Kaliningrad transit of people and goods" and completely remove it from sanctions: Minister - Head of the Agency for International and Interregional Relations of the Kaliningrad Region Alla Ivanova said that the issue of restricting transit to Kaliningrad is more of a technical nature, therefore, it is necessary to amend the EU sanctions document 833/2014.

In particular, to supplement the glossary with the concept of "Kaliningrad transit of people and goods" and completely withdraw it from sanctions, another option involves the withdrawal of certain groups of goods: jet fuel, metal, coal, oil products and others from the sanctions document as "in transit from the Russian Federation to the Russian Federation ", as well as remove the words "including transit" and "on the condition that the transportation of these goods is prohibited by this document," explained the minister, whose words are quoted in the press release of the regional government.

At the same time, according to Ivanova, the most obvious solution to the problem of restricting land transit of a number of goods to the region without amending EU documents is to explain to the Lithuanian customs authorities that sanctions do not apply to transit cargo.

"The most obvious [option] is to send clarifications to the customs authorities of the Republic of Lithuania about the non-application of the effect of the articles introduced by the 4th, 5th and 6th packages of sanctions to Kaliningrad transit without amending Regulation 833/2014 [of the European Union] goods," she said.

Earlier, the governor of the Kaliningrad region, Anton Alikhanov, reported that Lithuania had notified local authorities that since June 18 it had stopped letting through goods subject to sanctions that were transported by rail from Russian regions to the Kaliningrad region. On Tuesday, June 21, it became known that the restrictions also affected trucking. The Russian Foreign Ministry and the Kremlin stated that Lithuania's actions were illegal and contrary to international agreements. At the same time, Lithuania and the EU assure that the country has not introduced any unilateral or additional restrictions, but only “consistently applies EU sanctions.