Lithuania puts up a fence on its border with Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave

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Military personnel with a view of Russia's Kaliningrad enclave border, as seen from the Sudargas border crossing in Ramoniskiai village, Lithuania. The country is beginning construction of a wire fence on its' border with Russia's Kaliningrad as the region braces for Russian military drills along the border. Photo: EPA

Published: 3:13am, 6 Jun 2017Updated: 3:13am, 6 Jun 2017

Lithuania on Monday began building a wire fence on the border with Russia’s highly militarised Kaliningrad exclave to boost security and prevent smuggling amid tensions with Moscow.

Construction of the 45-kilometre (28-mile) long, two-metre high fence will cost 3.6 million euros (US$4 million) and will be finished by the end of the year, the interior ministry said.

Interior Minister Eimutis Misiunas launched the construction by helping to install the first post some 200 kilometres west of the Baltic EU state’s capital Vilnius.

“The fence will help Lithuania to fight smuggling and illegal state border crossings,” the minister’s spokesman Karolis Vaitkevicius said. “If we want to have a well functioning Schengen (passport-free) zone, we have to have a protected external EU border.”

The stretch of border is a popular route for cigarette smugglers to ferry contraband from Kaliningrad into Lithuania, a eurozone member of 2.8 million.

Workers install poles for the fence near the Sudargas border crossing point with Russia in Ramoniskiai, Lithuania. Photo: Reuters

But there are also deeper security concerns.

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