Lithuania Toes US Line by Limiting Rail Cargo to Russian Exclave, Expert Says

BRUSSELS, June 25 (Sputnik) - Lithuania has limited rail cargo to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to further ramp up tensions with Moscow and justify US attempts to draw the European Union into the sphere of NATO's influence, French politician Francois Asselineau told Sputnik.

“Europe is losing geopolitical ground and the Kaliningrad tension is one more example of it... Europe's world policy is in the hands of the US. The United States has long sought to fit the EU into the NATO perimeter," he suggested.

Lithuania argues that the ban on the transit of sanctioned goods is in line with EU directives, but Asselineau warns that what Russia terms as a "blockade" of its territory has opened a new front of confrontation between Russia and NATO in northwestern Europe ahead of next week's NATO summit, which will consider accession bids by EU members Finland and Sweden.

Asselineau, a former general delegate for economic intelligence at the French Ministry of Economy and Finance, accused "eurocrats" in Brussels of abandoning European sovereignty and bankrupting citizens by sanctioning Russia in the interest of US-led NATO.

"Foreign policy of Europe is under NATO’s tutelage. It has been agreed by the members of the alliance... that the European policies cannot be in contradiction with NATO’s positions. Now Finland and Sweden will join the pack, since they abandon their neutrality. This is all very worrying," the expert said.

Asselineau regretted that France had abandoned the independence advocated by former President Charles de Gaulle, who could act as a go-between between superpowers since he did not side with any blocs. He said the recent legislative and presidential polls in France proved this shift as no key candidates dared question Ukraine's EU ambitions. 

"This will be very visible again at the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June, where of course President [Volodymyr] Zelensky is invited, in khaki clothes, no doubt. It is a provocation wanted by the United States, like the blockade... on the Russian territory of Kaliningrad,” he said.