The Russian Foreign Ministry warned that the response to transit restrictions placed by Lithuania on Kaliningrad will be "practical" and "not diplomatic" in statements on Wednesday.
“As for response measures, now possible measures are being worked out in an interdepartmental format," said Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, according to TASS. "Both Lithuania and the EU, through their diplomatic missions in Moscow, were told that such actions are inadmissible and that the steps taken must be changed and the situation returned to a legal and legitimate course. If this is not done, then, of course, and this was emphasized at all levels in Moscow, retaliatory actions will be inevitable."
"On the question of what they will be...Will they be exclusively in the diplomatic plane? [The] answer is no. They will not be in the diplomatic, but in the practical plane," added Zakharova.
In the past week, Lithuania has limited the transit of a number of goods from the Russian Federation to Kaliningrad due to European Union sanctions against Russia for its continued invasion of Ukraine. The limits have been placed both on rail and road transit. Russia is working to reroute the affected goods to seaports and ship them on ferries to Kaliningrad.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated on Wednesday that while it is "premature" to speak about possible Russian responses, "concrete measures" are being discussed in response to the sanctions, according to RIA Novosti.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda stated on Tuesday that the country would seek support from EU leaders amid the threats from Russia.
“The president will raise this issue because it is a topical issue in our lives and because Russia has threatened Lithuania with a full range of retaliatory measures amid the implementation of EU sanctions,” said the president's chief foreign policy adviser, Asta Skaisgirytė, according to LRT.
A top Russian official warned the West on Wednesday to stop talking about triggering NATO's "Article 5" mutual defense clause in a standoff between Lithuania and Russia.
Russian moves against Lithuania
The tensions around Kaliningrad come just weeks after Yevgeny Fyodorov, a member of Russia's State Duma, submitted a bill to the country's parliament to repeal the recognition by the USSR of Lithuania's independence, saying that such a move could allow Russia to push NATO out of countries that joined after 1999.
Fyodorov told the RTVI network that the reason he was suggesting revoking the recognition of Lithuania's independence is because this would lead to the nation being involved in a territorial dispute, meaning it would no longer meet the conditions for admission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
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