DISINFO: Russia has legitimate territorial claims over Curonian and Vistula Spits, Klaipeda
SUMMARY
Russia should not be scared of the EU's provocation with the blockade of transit between the Kaliningrad region and mainland Russia. Instead, the initiators of this madness should be scared given that most countries which neighbor Russia for centuries were part of the Russian empire or other states. Eyeing Russian territories can result in the loss of the Curonian and Vistula Spits which currently partly belong, respectively, to Lithuania and Poland. Russia has the right to own both spits entirely.
Moreover, the issue of Klaipeda's belonging should also be raised. Lithuania stole the city; there are no documents which regulated the accession of Klaipeda to Lithuania. Hence, once the agreements regulating the transit between Kaliningrad and mainland Russia cease to be functioning, Russia could consider the treaty on borders with Lithuania annuled and void as well. In case of a military conflict, Lithuania would be crushed within several days and stop existing as an independent country in the current borders.
RESPONSE
This publication promotes false claims concerning the territorial integrity of Lithuania and Poland and threatens them. It misrepresents the recent diplomatic row over the transit of Russian goods through Lithuania to Kalininrgrad.
There is no talk about territorial claims towards Russia as the article implies. The issue concerns the application of EU sanctions. As explained here in more detail, a set of EU sanctions adopted back in mid-March 2022 came into effect on 17 June, prohibiting the import and transit of certain iron and steel products originating from Russia. That said, the transit of passengers and non-sanctioned goods to and from the Kaliningrad region through Lithuania continues uninterrupted, and land transit between Kaliningrad and other parts of Russia has not been stopped.
The borderlines between Russia and Lithuania, Russia and Poland on, respectively, the Curonian and Vistula Spits are internationally recognised.
In 1945 Klaipeda, which had been ceded to Nazi Germany in 1939, was returned to the then Soviet-occupied Lithuania. Following the restoration of Lithuania's sovereigny, the city became part of the internationally recognised, sovereign Lithuania (see more here).
See earlier disinformation cases alleging that Lithuanian decision to apply EU sanctions on the transit of goods to Kaliningrad is illegal, that Lithuania is a country with limited sovereignty, and that Lithuania exposed itself to Russia nuclear strike.