Lithuania was accused of “rail war” against the Kaliningrad region – Independent Newspaper

Acting Governor of Kaliningrad Region Nikolai Tsukanov accused Lithuania in constant increase in railway tariffs for maintenance of transit to Kaliningrad. According to the head of the region, this practice creates great difficulties for local businesses and authorities. Experts have long spoken of a “tariff war” that Lithuania is Kaliningrad against competitors. The cost of transportation of cargo from Klaipeda, which is twice longer Kaliningrad, costs to shippers and a half times cheaper. Government of the Kaliningrad region in the early century, proposed the project to neighbors “2 K”, providing distribution streams coming through the ports of Kaliningrad and Klaipeda. But this idea still did not work.

  
 

The Lithuanian authorities are not limited to manipulation with tariffs. Over the last month too careful actions of the local border guards and customs officials have delayed for several hours four passenger trains bound for the Russian Baltic. After receiving an official protest leadership Lithuanian Railways (LG) apologized to the Russian side, but did not guarantee compliance with the train schedule.

  
 

This opinion in Kaliningrad is associated with a wave of militarist hysteria that swept Lithuania against the backdrop of the Ukrainian crisis. It not only restored the call to active duty conscripts, but also created a battalion of special forces designed to deal with “polite people” who can land from Kaliningrad passenger trains. In the spring of this unit has been alerted. Then watchful Lithuanians suspicious presence of cars hundreds of young men who followed a group. Upon closer examination revealed that this morehodki cadets are sent to practice on the White Sea. But the train “amber”, “just in case” stood encircled by gunmen for several hours in the Lithuanian railway station.

  
 

The complex transit relations with Lithuania, deteriorating since 2004, effectively blocking previously put forward proposals for the development of the capacity of the Kaliningrad port complex. In particular, recently proposed to build on the coast of deep sea port with the volume of cargo handling of 60 million tons annually. Implementation of this plan is difficult not only tariff policy CFL. The existing railway infrastructure of the Kaliningrad region and Lithuania is designed to pass a maximum of 25 million. Tons of cargo. To service the new port is necessary to seriously upgrade not only Kaliningrad but also the Lithuanian section of steel highways. This is not only expensive, but it is hardly possible in the current international situation, the Lithuanian foreign policy priority is the maximum distancing from its eastern neighbor. Last noticeable, for example, after the commissioning of the LNG terminal in Klaipeda, through which the country enters the Norwegian liquefied petroleum gas, consumer avoids a half times more than the supply of “Gazprom”. The next step – switching between Lithuania and the Unified Energy System of Russia on a similar EU network and the construction of the meridional speed railway from Tallinn to the Polish-Lithuanian border. Cooperation with Russia in these grandiose plans no place.

  
 

Kaliningrad