In his words, Vilnius has raised the issue with top-ranking Russian officials.
"We are working to make use of all our connections in the European Commission and other institutions, as well as in direct communication with top-ranking Russian officials," the minister told BNS on Monday.
He said that damages incurred by Lithuanian carriers amount to "millions of euros" every day after Russia launched thorough examination of Lithuanian carriers last week.
The Lithuanian diplomacy chief said he had no specific facts to corroborate the guesses that the Russian steps are due to political reasons, adding that such an assumption has not been dismissed.
"Unfortunately, there have been cases when our neighbors sometimes retort to such ways of pressure, and we felt this with regard to countries of the Eastern Partnership program. Anything can happen. I cannot say this for sure as there are no facts but only presumptions can be made," Linkevičius said.
Lithuania's Foreign Ministry last week summoned the Russian ambassador over Russia's newly-imposed customs measures and handed him a note. In Linkevičius' words, Lithuania has not received any convincing explanations. He says he hasn't yet received any official information about Russia's reported move to tighten the control of dairy imports from Lithuania.
"We haven't received any official information yet. If we had, we would respond just the way we did in other cases," the minister said.
Lithuania is holding presidency of the EU Council in the second half of this year, with a focus on the Eastern Partnership program, which aims to promote closer ties between the EU and the six post-Soviet nations.
