The situation in Russia’s Kaliningrad region, which is surrounded by the territory of the European Union, continues to get more complicated. Lithuanian state railways LTG announced the suspension of oil and oil products belonging to the Russian concern Lukoil, both to and from the Russian exclave.
The measure will also affect another Russian oil giant, Rosneft, which, together with Lukoil, was sanctioned by the United States on October 22. Washington gave Lithuania a month to end all transactions with these firms.
The practical end of the EU exemption
US sanctions have been in effect worldwide since November 21. Countries that continue to do business with affected companies risk so-called secondary sanctions from the US and Great Britain. The United Kingdom will impose similar sanctions from mid-November.
“After the end of the transition period, LTG will no longer transport any shipments in which Lukoil or Rosneft are involved in any way,” Lithuanian Railways announced. At the same time, they stated that they themselves do not have direct contractual relations with the Russian concerns and transport the goods through intermediaries, whose names they did not mention due to contractual obligations.
The transit of Russian fuels through the territory of the European Union has been prohibited since December 2022. However, due to its geographical location, Lithuania had an exception and allowed the supply of basic raw materials to the Kaliningrad region. It does not have a direct land connection with Russia, it borders only Lithuania and Poland. Now the exception is practically cancelled.
LTG transported a total of 371,000 tons of oil products to the Kaliningrad region last year, of which 345,000 tons were from Lukoil. This year it was 194 thousand tons of Lukoil oil. Rosneft oil was not transported through Lithuania either last year or this year.
Russian authorities already claimed in March that Vilnius had reduced the capacity of rail oil transportation by 30 percent.
New negotiations on gas
The energy connection with Russia thus remains only in the form of gas transit. However, the latter can be another point of tension. Lithuania receives about 12 million euros in transit fees, equivalent to 294 million crowns per year.
At the same time, the Baltic Republic itself completely stopped the import of Russian gas for its own consumption in April 2022. The exception is the aforementioned transit to Kaliningrad, which does not have a direct land connection with Russia.
Gas transportation will probably continue even after 2025, when the Lithuanian-Russian ten-year contract ends. This time the contract should be for a shorter time interval and for a higher transit fee. The Lithuanian gas transmission system operator Amber Grid and the Russian energy giant Gazprom are leading the negotiations on the extension.
But the recent Lithuanian move towards Belarus also means complications for Kaliningrad. This week, the Lithuanian government tightened the rules for crossing the border with Alexander Lukashenko’s regime.
By doing so, Vilnius responded to a “hybrid psychological action”. The airport in Vilnius had to suspend operations four times last week because of balloons from Belarus. They are used to smuggle cigarettes from Belarus.
The restriction also affected the airport in Kaunas and in total affected over 140 flights and 20,000 passengers.
The Lithuanian cabinet then proceeded to limit transit across the border with Belarus and introduced monthly quotas. Transit to Kaliningrad has an exception for now, but Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys said that Vilnius reserves the right to stop this transit for security reasons as well.
Lithuanian agency Delfi reports that convoys of Russian trucks are forming on the Belarusian-Lithuanian border due to stricter administration and a reduction in the number of transport corridors.
