Lithuania confirmed receipt of prepayment for cargo transit from Russia

Lithuanian Railways received a three-week advance payment for Kaliningrad freight transit through the territory of the republic, BNS reports with reference to the state-owned company.

“The Lithuanian Railway Authority has confirmed an advance payment of 2.5 million euros for the transit of goods to the Kaliningrad region for three weeks,” the report says.

As Egidijus Lazauskas, the head of the state-owned company, noted, in the future the process will depend on whether the Russian side can find a solution for payments.

At the end of August, Lithuanian Minister of Communications and Transport Marius Skuodis said that Lithuanian banks could and should accept payments for transit between the Kaliningrad region and the rest of Russia. According to Skuodis, the government has done everything possible to clarify the situation. At the same time, he stressed that transit is a commercial service and its provision is not within the competence of state structures.

On July 28, it became known that the Lithuanian Siauliai Bank, which services the transit of goods to the Kaliningrad region, from September 1 refuses to work with Russia. On August 5, the Lithuanian Association of Banks reported that the organization was waiting for clarification from the authorities of the republic regarding the Kaliningrad transit – credit organizations are afraid to service payments on it due to sanctions against Russia and Belarus.

European Commission spokesperson Arianna Podesta said on August 11 that the EU sanctions do not impose a ban on servicing payments for rail services, in particular, they do not prohibit payments for transit services between the Kaliningrad region and the rest of Russia. According to her, the decision to suspend payments was made by a specific bank, based on its risk assessment.

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