INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Lithuania hasannounced a ban on passenger pick-ups and drop-offs for trains running to and from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad beginning
Last year saw a fivefold increase in the use of the Russia-Lithuania-Kaliningrad railway route.Lithuania also suspended pedestrian and
bicycle crossings via two border checkpoints with Belarus and announced plans to issue fewer permits to Belarusian and Lithuanian
international passenger bus carriers.Soon after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Lithuania imposed strict restrictions on goods traveling
passage of sanctioned goods, with the exception of weapons, between Russia and Kaliningrad.While transit by road was not allowed, legal
guidance released by the EU said that rail transport could not be subject to an outright ban.Kaliningrad borders Lithuania and Poland on the
Baltic Sea and is home to over 1 million people.Seized by the Red Army from Germany in the closing stages of World War II, Kaliningrad
became separated from the Russian mainland following the break-up of the Soviet Union when Lithuania became an independent state.
