Lithuanian Foreign Minister Hopes Moscow, Vilnius to Normalize Relations

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told Sputnik that he hoped Russia and Lithuania would normalize their bilateral relations, particularly in the cultural and political spheres.

BELGRADE (Sputnik) Svetlana Alexandrova — The Lithuanian foreign minister said that despite the fact that the EU sanctions had negatively affected both sides, they had failed to bring about the intended results. At the same time, nobody wanted Russia to "suffer," according to Linkevicius.

"I hope that in the future we will get back to normal relations — both cultural and political," Linkevicius said, speaking about the impact of the sanctions, imposed by the European Union, including Lithuania, on Russia.

Linkevicius added that Lithuanian dairy exports to the Kaliningrad Region of Russia, which neighbors Lithuania, decreased by 25 percent in 2015, which has had a detrimental effect on Lithuania's transport and production sectors.

Relations between Russia and the European Union deteriorated due to the internal crisis in Ukraine. Brussels imposed several rounds of anti-Russian sanctions, accusing Moscow of meddling in the Ukrainian internal affairs.

Moscow has repeatedly denied the accusations and imposed an embargo on food imports from the countries that had sanctioned it.