The six road corridors between Belarus and Lithuania are still in operation. But such restrictions will make it difficult to transport goods between states.
“The volume of goods traffic may decrease, especially if the Lithuanian authorities create bureaucratic obstacles and individual business entities in Lithuania want to take advantage of them,” says Yury Shedko, professor at the Department of State and Municipal Administration of the Government Financial University. of the Russian Federation. Lithuania could completely close the borders under cover of a far-fetched pretext, believes the expert. For example, Vilnius closed the Benyakoni – Stasilos railway checkpoint until the end of 2024.
Lithuania’s actions will indeed significantly limit the flow of goods between the two states. “Now between these states there will be only one Gudogai – Kyana rail border crossing,” Shedko summed up.
He also noted that this decision could have a negative impact on freight flows from Russia and Belarus to the Kaliningrad region, which were partially restricted last summer. “Russia has had time to reorganize, but the current circumstances will require even more coordinated work from our logistics services and Belarus,” he concluded.
Lithuania refuses the provisions adopted in the document, which was signed on November 4, 2019, notes ACEX Executive Director Aleksey Lipatov. “The document planned to ensure the uninterrupted flow of transport across the border and to increase the capacity of road checkpoints. However, the pandemic and the strengthening of sanctions have in many respects prevented the full implementation of this document,” said a representative of the logistics company. .
In his opinion, the decision of Lithuania will in any case have a negative impact on the speed of crossing the border, until the suspension of the operation of the crossing, temporarily or permanently. “Although there is no question of a complete closure at the moment, this does not give any guarantees for the future,” Lipatov points out.
Even more worrying is the fact that one of the two railway checkpoints between the Benyakoni countries, Stasilos, is closing before the end of 2024, he adds. “In the context of restrictions on the transit of goods by road, this seems suspicious,” says the expert. According to him, such restrictions may also aim to complicate the situation in the Kaliningrad region, where part of the cargo passes through Lithuania.
Meanwhile, representatives of freight carriers are discussing on social networks the information that more than 200 Lithuanian companies are still exporting products to Russia, despite the bans. The Lithuanian authorities intend to contain this flow of goods.
