Kaliningrad, a strategic territory landlocked by the European Union
Vilnius therefore prohibits, since this weekend, the passage through its territory of goods on the list of European sanctions against Russia. This concerns in particular construction materials, chemical products or even computers and mobile phones, which have so far passed through Lithuania by train.
Before World War II, Kaliningrad was called Königsberg and belonged to Germany. When the Nazi regime fell in 1945, this small piece of territory came under Soviet control and changed its name. Then, when the Baltic countries took their independence, after the end of the USSR, Russia kept its enclave.
The advantage of the Kaliningrad territory is to be spared from the lowest temperatures, and therefore to be accessible by sea even in winter. A strategic asset at the military level, especially during the Cold War. Moscow stationed many warships there.
In recent years, especially since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russia has also sent planes and missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads there, and of reaching the capitals of Western Europe. In the current context in Ukraine, it is a significant means of pressure. And that worries the neighbors in the first place: Lithuania, Poland and Sweden.
Justine Fontaine,
international department