The German government demanded an end to Lithuania’s transit blockade of sanctioned goods from mainland Russia to Kaliningrad, Russia. The EU Commission allegedly reached a deal that will allow Russia to transit Lithuania by rail to Kaliningrad.
At this time, Lithuania will not allow sanctioned goods to transit but other goods and people can transit.
Kaliningrad is isolated from Russia although it is part of Russia. It does not share a border with Mother Russia.
Some are calling it appeasement and others say it was an illegal embargo that would lead to direct war with NATO.
GERMANY’S ROLE
The German government was irritated by Lithuania’s transit blockade of sanctioned goods from mainland Russia to its exclave, Kaliningrad, Der Spiegel magazine has reported.
Since mid-June, the Baltic nation has been refusing to let items on the EU sanctions list pass through its territory. Moscow, in turn, has threatened retaliation. Lithuania suffered a cyber attack last week.
Der Spiegel ran an article on Thursday, claiming that the EU would soon issue a clarification to allow the passage of any goods between mainland Russia and its westernmost region. Officials in Berlin reportedly view the transit currently being blocked by Vilnius as “transport from Russia to Russia.” They say that should be allowed. Lithuania’s unrelenting stance has allegedly angered the German leadership, the magazine reported.
The magazine went on to suggest that Olaf Scholz’s government is wary that Moscow could use force unless the blockade is lifted.
If our government was honest about this, they’d admit we are at war.
The US has assembled what it calls a “combatant command” out of an Air Force base in Illinois where the logistics of the Ukraine military’s wartime rearmament are organized. Nevertheless, this is most certainly not a proxy war and how dare you suggest thathttps://t.co/VrL43Cfw6X
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) July 3, 2022
RISKING DIRECT WAR
With the Baltic state being a NATO member, that scenario would mean a direct conflict between the military alliance and Russia.
As pointed out by Der Spiegel, the German chancellor has repeatedly said his goal is to prevent NATO from becoming a party to the war in Ukraine.
Berlin is particularly concerned about the situation since German troops are stationed in Lithuania as part of the alliance’s rapid force, the report adds. Der Spiegel cited unnamed Lithuanian government officials as confirming the intervention from Berlin.
It did appear to amount to an illegal embargo.
Lithuania was also concerned that Russia would plow through Lithuania to get to Kaliningrad, formerly Konigsburg.
It was a significant escalation in Germany’s view, and Russia’s.
The EU dropped the demand and is calling it a “clarification”. The West keeps shooting from the hip. At this point, something may well light the fuse and put us in direct conflict.
THE INCREMENTAL AND HALTING PROGRESS?
Meanwhile, Russia has seized all of Luhansk. It’s being described as “halting and incremental progress” by the West, although they have a third of the country. Luhansk is the last major city which had remained under Ukrainian control since 2014 when the LPR declared its independence shortly after a coup in Kiev.
Germany and France had brokered a deal to declare the Donbas independent. Ukraine refused to follow up on the agreement although they agreed to it originally. Now Russia has the region under its full control. Those are just the facts.
CORRECTION; We incorrectly reported that Lithuania started to dismantle railroad tracks. That was incorrect. We apologize for the error.
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