Lithuania to work out new security measures for Russian passengers’ transit by train

VILNIUS – Following the escape of a Russian citizen from the Adler-Kaliningrad transit train, Lithuania will renew security measures to prevent such incidents, the Interior Ministry said on Monday.

Interior Minister Vladislav Kondratovic has already set up an inter-institutional working group to work out an updated response plan for possible incidents while making sure the Kaliningrad Special Transit Scheme is secure.

According to the minister, it is necessary to fundamentally review the security measures applied in legislation and in practice during the transit of passengers to and from the Kaliningrad region in order to completely prevent any possible incidents in the future, such as escapes, provocations, or diversionary attacks.

“The latest incident, where a Russian citizen left the train in transit, shows that the response algorithm is not working properly,” Kondratovic said.

In addition, the changed geopolitical situation in the region and increasingly frequent Russian hybrid operations, according to him, encourage new solutions to ensure the security of the Special Transit Scheme.

Public security services have already prepared a set of new proposals for the inter-institutional working group on how to strengthen the security of the Special Transit Scheme.

It is proposed to team up with the Lithuanian railway operator Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways) for exploring the technical possibilities for the police to receive real-time signals about open doors on moving trains. In such cases, police officers would be able to determine the exact location of the incident and respond immediately.

The installation of additional video surveillance and other detection devices on the locomotive to monitor the entire train will also be considered.

One of the proposals is to review the liability for leaving a train in transit through the Lithuanian territory.

Currently, transit to and from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad is carried out in accordance with the existing agreement between the European Union and Russia and the obligations set out therein.

Last week, the Kybartai railway border checkpoint received a report that a Russian citizen born in 2004 had left the moving Adler–Kaliningrad train.

Police said about 25 minutes before the train was due to reach the Kybartai railway station, when the train was moving between Pilviskiai and Kybartai, an attendant noticed an open train door, through which the person could have jumped off.

The person who left the transit train was later identified as Russian citizen Danil Mukhametov.

Lithuanian officials have not yet been able to find the man.

According to border guards, a similar incident occurred in 2020, when an Uzbek man jumped off a train near Vilnius and died in an accident.