A long-expected flashpoint in Putin’s War just got a lot flashier. The Russian oblast of Kaliningrad is the home port, and only warm water port, of Russia’s Baltic Fleet. It used to be German territory. The capital was Koenigsberg. The USSR received the entire territory at the close of World War II, despite having no historical claims to it. Koenigsberg was renamed Kaliningrad and Germans were ethnically cleansed in the USSR. Then, Russian colonists arrived to settle.
Kaliningrad cannot be reached via land, but it can be reached through either Poland or Lithuania. (70% of traffic between Russia and Kaliningrad goes by train), Russia was allowed to transport EU-approved goods by rail from Kaliningrad until Monday. This has all changed. The Russians aren’t happy.
Russian authorities on Monday threatened Lithuania, a member of NATO, with retaliation if the Baltic country does not swiftly reverse its ban on the transportation of some goods to Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad by rail.
Citing instructions from the European Union, Lithuania’s railway on Friday said it was halting the movement of goods from Russia that have been sanctioned by the European bloc.
Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, told reporters the situation was “more than serious.” He called the new restrictions “an element of a blockade” of the region and a “violation of everything.”
Accustomed to Russian threats, officials in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, took Moscow’s warnings as mostly bluster — the latest in a series of increasingly intemperate statements by a country that is severely stretched militarily by its invasion of Ukraine.
“We are not particularly worried about Russian threats,” said Lauynas Kasciunas, chairman of the Lithuanian Parliament’s national security and defense committee. “The Kremlin has very few options for how to retaliate.”
There are two things you should keep in mind. Pro-Putin sites like ZeroHedge are portraying the action as a “blockade” and claiming it “implemented a ban on all rail transit goods going to Russia’s far-western exclave of Kaliningrad.” This is a rather in-your-face, egregious lie that stands out even amid ZeroHedge’s record of in-your-face and egregious lies. Rail shipments are only affected if they contain goods that the EU already has sanctioned. Lithuania follows the same guidelines as Europe.
Kaliningrad generates 100% of its own power and has access to Russia’s gas pipeline to Europe. The sanctions don’t affect food, medicine, or medical supplies. However, it stops vodka shipping. So the health and safety of Kaliningrad’s residents aren’t at risk, but it has become a lot less fun to live there. In addition, it will directly impact the ability of Russia’s Baltic Fleet to operate until Russia can set up a sea line of communication with enough ships to keep the place running.
ZeroHedge also claims this action “marks a complete break in a three decade long treaty that’s been in effect.” Again, another lie that is quickly put to rest by use of the little-known technique of reading. The treaty ZeroHedge referencesIt is as follows. It does not cover the sanctioned items, and it doesn’t even cover rail traffic.
Russia Lithuania Treaty of Kaliningrad by Scribd
These people should be getting paid lots of money to propagandize for Putin. I would find it a disgrace if these people were being paid to do this for nothing.
Vladimir Putin is, in his own words, on a mission to return to Russian control lands he thinks are rightfully Russia’s, regardless of what the citizens of the targeted nations wish. In a speech to mark the 350th anniversary of Czar Peter The Great’s birth, Putin compared his war in Ukraine with the Great Northern War (1701-1721) and any future conflicts against the neighbors.
“Peter the Great waged the Great Northern War for 21 years,” Putin said after visiting an exhibit in Peter’s honor. “It would seem that he was at war with Sweden, he took something from them. He didn’t take anything away from them; he returned. [what was Russia’s].”
The Russian president then alluded to the ongoing “special operation” in Ukraine, which he and his state’s propaganda arms have also cast as war of restoration and return — no matter that the sovereignty-violating invasion marks a grievous breach of international law and has led to many billions of dollars in damage to Ukraine’s towns and cities, the deaths of thousands of people and disruptions to the global economy that imperil millions more.
“What was [Peter] doing?” Putin said. “Taking back and reinforcing. That’s what he did. And it looks like it fell on us to take back and reinforce as well.”
Putin did not look defensive when he said he was Peter the Great.
After 3+ months of war in Ukraine which he claimed was to ‘denazify’ & not occupy, he now says it straight: he is on a mission to ‘return’ land to Russia
His ’empire is expanding’ pic.twitter.com/UV3QypXDO4
— Sarah Rainsford (@sarahrainsford) June 10, 2022
Putin would like to see Lithuania return under Russian control. That’s why they are paying attention.
This could be the start of World War III, despite what Putin fluffers or panty-wetters may claim.
While it will not have any effect on the outcome in the Ukraine war, blocking Kaliningrad could make the conflict worse. It is important that we immediately instruct Lithuania to stop occupying Kaliningrad. https://t.co/gQMXHQBuS2
— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) June 19, 2022
it isn’t. Russia isn’t going to war over drunken and AIDS-riddled Russians in Kaliningrad not getting their vodka. Russia’s criminal misadventures may help prevent another war.
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