The German government has warned Russia not to take countermeasures over the dispute of freight traffic to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
“We call on Russia not to take any measures that violate international law,” German government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said.
He said that Lithuania had taken these actions within the European Union framework of sanctions on Russia. Only certain goods are affected by the sanctions, and no people have been sanctioned.
“We therefore clearly reject countermeasures announced by Russia,” Hebestreit said during a regularly scheduled government news conference in Berlin.
Some background: The Kremlin has said Lithuania’s transit ban on European Union-sanctioned goods to Russia through Kaliningrad is “unacceptable.”
“We are convinced that the sanctions adopted by the EU are absolutely unacceptable. Applying these sanctions regarding transit to Kaliningrad and back simply contradicts fundamental agreements,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday, adding that retaliatory measures are being discussed.
Peskov refused to elaborate what those measures could entail and said there was no exact timeline for Moscow’s response, but that it will announce them when they are ready.
“(Response) measures are being prepared. After we carefully weigh everything, we will talk about it,” he said.
