SVETLOGORSK /Kaliningrad region/, August 18. /TASS/. The authorities of the Kaliningrad region plan to allocate 4 bln rubles ($66.7 mln) to subsidize ferry cargo transportations to the region, Deputy Prime Minister of the region Dmitry Kuskov told reporters on Thursday.
"We have already received the approval of the order of the Russian government on the allocation of financial resources for subsidies. We hope that in September Rosmorrechflot (Federal Agency of Maritime and River Transport - TASS) will be subsidized for transportation. The amount of financing which is being considered is about 4 bln rubles," Kuskov said.
The regional authorities are counting on subsidizing to bring the cost of ferry transportation to the region to the level of transit by rail, he explained. Taking into account the problems arising with the transit of goods through Lithuania, the Kaliningrad authorities are developing sea transportation of goods to the region. The official stressed that the region wants to guarantee a stable delivery of goods to the region.
Earlier, Dmitry Lyskov, head of the press service of the regional government, said that nine ships are involved in ferry transportation, in the near future there will be 12 vessels.
Transit via Lithuania
In June, the Lithuanian authorities notified the administration of the Kaliningrad region that the country was stopping the transit of goods from Russia's mainland to its Baltic exclave. This concerned transportation of goods included in the EU sanction lists, both by trucks and by rail.
The Russian authorities called these restrictions illegal. In July, the European Commission indicated that the rail transit of goods to the Kaliningrad region should not be subject to restrictions, provided that it is controlled during transportation. Butrestrictions on the transit of goods by road were retained.
Later, a Lithuanian bank, through which the payment for transit to Kaliningrad was made, announced that from September 1, it would stop all operations with Russian clients as part of the EU sanctions against Moscow.
On July 28, the Russian side handed a note to Lithuania because of banking problems with Kaliningrad transit. On August 11, the representative of the European Commission, Ariana Podesta, stated that operations of commercial banks to pay for Kaliningrad cargo transit through Lithuania do not violate the sanctions regime. As Podesta noted, the Lithuanian authorities have sufficient competence to convince banks that financial transactions related to rail transit are not prohibited. On August 16, Lithuania's Ministry of Communications and Transport announced that Lithuanian commercial banks may, as an exception, accept payments for freight rail transit through Lithuania to the Kaliningrad region.