Lithuania is the latest subject of Russian threats after the country cut off EU-sanctioned goods from crossing by rail through its land from Moscow to the Russian Oblast (province) of Kaliningrad.
Coal, metals, construction supplies, and advanced technology are among the materials that fall under European Union sanctions against Russia following their February invasion of Ukraine.
In response, Russia called the move “illegal and unprecedented” and warned that it “will have a serious negative impact on the Lithuanian population.”
The European Union’s top diplomat has been summoned to Moscow, as the Kremlin vows “very tough actions” against Lithuania if they do not reverse course on their “openly hostile move.”
Kaliningrad Oblast is a semi-enclave geographically separate from Russia, with an estimated population of approximately one million. Located on the Baltic Sea, Kaliningrad shares its border with Lithuania and Poland, two countries that are both EU and NATO members.
The ground transit ban, which went into effect on Saturday, will block half of all goods coming into the Oblast and will additionally cut off the province’s only oil pipeline from Russia, according to the province’s governor, Anton Alikhanov, via Telegram. However, it is worth noting that the enclave remains able to import goods from the Russian mainland through the Baltic Sea.
“The rhetoric today is sharp and uncompromising. The Lithuanians interpret the situation as ‘Russia is threatening Lithuania with war,’ As if they did not start this round,” Alikhanov, who is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders, wrote on the platform.
The railway from the city of Kaliningrad to Moscow [pictured below] runs through Vilnius, Lithuania’s second-largest city, and the Belarusian capital of Minsk. Although Belarus has helped Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, Lithuania, along with the other two Baltic states, has been vocal in its condemnation of Russia’s actions.
Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov insisted that the West will never again regain the “trust” of Moscow following the Lithuanian decision to cease the movement of EU-sanctioned materials.
“Relations between Russia and the West will not be back to the previous level, because Moscow will never again trust such ‘partners.’ It will be a lengthy crisis, but we will never trust the West again,” Peskov declared.
Kaliningrad Oblast is strategically located, allowing Russia to position weaponry within striking distance of several western European nations.
The enclave has been referred to as Russia’s “unsinkable aircraft carrier,” which was the intent of Joseph Stalin when he secured the port, previously known under the German name Konigsberg, in the 1940s following World War II.
Today, Russia frequently uses the Oblast’s striking reach to threaten military action against the West. In response to the latest escalation, Evgeny Buzhinsky, a retired Russian general, urged President Vladimir Putin to transfer nuclear weapons to Kaliningrad.
Due to Lithuania’s NATO status, “any direct military action by Russia would trigger Article 5 of the treaty, and the entirety of the alliance would [be] at war with Russia,” Defence News explained.
“During the State of the Union Address, U.S. President Joe Biden vowed to defend ‘every inch’ of NATO territory. In March, the U.S. bolstered its presence in Lithuania, bringing the number of soldiers stationed in the country to around 1,000,” they documented.
Last Wednesday, Russia suggested that they may revoke their recognition of the independence of former Soviet nations (including Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) in an attempt to have their NATO protections revoked.
“The NATO Charter contains clause six, according to which the disputed territories cannot be included in the alliance. As soon as the territories of the Baltic countries are recognized as disputed, this will become the basis for the exclusion of the Baltic countries from NATO,” Russian lawmaker Yevgeny Fedorov stated.
Furthermore, in the Baltic Sea last week, another NATO nation was the recipient of Moscow’s intimidation tactics when a Russian warship twice violated Denmark’s northern waters, a move the Danish Foreign Minister called a “completely unacceptable” provocation.
Additionally, threats of nuclear retaliation have become par for the course for the Kremlin, further exacerbating tensions in Europe.
“Over the last few years, Putin has made several direct and indirect threats to use nuclear weapons. But now the threats come almost every week,” Christian author Hal Lindsey explained in a recent article.
“Jesus said that war and rumors of war would mark the time before His return. Skeptics point out that there have always been both. Jesus clearly meant that end-time wars and messages about them would somehow be more extreme,” he described, referencing Matthew 24:6.
Nuclear weapons arsenals, Lindsey underscored, have greatly magnified the extreme nature of today’s “wars and rumors of wars.”
“According to the Bible, it will get worse before it gets better,” he wrote.
“But this is a ‘lift up your heads’ kind of moment,” he encouraged, explaining that the nuclear threats and intimidation “combined with all the other signs” makes it “obvious that we are getting close to the time of Christ’s return.”
