Putin aide accuses West of trying to isolate Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave

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MOSCOW (Reuters) – An aide to President Vladimir Putin accused the West on Friday of trying to isolate Russia’s European exclave of Kaliningrad as much as possible by restricting the supply of goods to it by road and rail.

Kaliningrad, an exclave on the Baltic coast sandwiched between NATO and European Union members Lithuania and Poland, is home to Russia’s Baltic Fleet. EU sanctions imposed on Moscow over its war in Ukraine ban the transport of certain goods there.

Nikolai Patrushev, an adviser to Putin known for his hawkish views on the West, visited Kaliningrad on Friday where he complained that 80% of goods which he said were essential for the exclave could not be brought by land.

“The countries of the West are trying to complicate cargo and passenger transit to Kaliningrad to the maximum extent in order to isolate the Kaliningrad region and to disrupt transport links with the main territory of Russia,” the state TASS news agency quoted Patrushev as saying.

He was quoted as saying Russia had been forced to supply the exclave with much of what it needed by sea, including on a ferry which operates between Kaliningrad and a port in the Leningrad region.

Work was underway to move the transit of diesel fuel, cement, and other materials to a specialised tanker fleet, he added, while two rail and road ferries were being built to try to improve transport links.

Those vessels were due to be completed in 2028, Patrushev was quoted as saying by TASS.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)