On June 24, Foreign Policy published its biweekly “It’s Debatable” column featuring Scowcroft Center deputy director Matthew Kroenig and New American Engagement Initiative senior fellow Emma Ashford assessing the latest news in international affairs.
In their latest column, they debate the implications of Lithuania’s blockage of Russian overland supply to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
The extraordinarily dangerous choice was made by Putin when he decided to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. These are the consequences. If he doesn’t like it, the solution is simple: He can withdraw his invading forces…it shouldn’t be up to Lithuania to create a loophole in EU sanctions to appease a dictator on the warpath.
The controversy over Kaliningrad is another reminder that this war in Ukraine is in many ways a war of Soviet succession. The territorial disputes and little oddities of the Soviet collapse that haven’t yet been resolved—Crimea, Kaliningrad—end up being the sparks for new conflict today.
