"Undermined trust in Europe": Lithuanian president slams Merz over broken promise on Russia sanctions

He said this in an interview with Bild.

Asked whether Merz’s promise — to introduce more sanctions together with the UK and France — but then not delivering, had undermined Europe’s credibility, the Lithuanian president replied: “Absolutely.”

“This is a problem. And it doesn’t just affect how credible our sanctions are — it hits the credibility of all our actions toward Russia and our support for Ukraine. We’ve made plenty of announcements that we’ll support Ukraine with fighter jets, long-range missiles, and ammunition. But we keep failing to deliver,” Nausėda said.

According to him, the sanctions imposed on Russia since February 2022 haven’t had the impact the West was hoping for. He said this was because, first, the sanctions weren’t tough enough — and second, third countries are helping Russia get around them.

“That’s why the Russian economy, while not in great shape, is still functioning relatively well under the circumstances,” the Lithuanian president said.

Nausėda added that Lithuania’s call for the 18th sanctions package to be like a “Molotov cocktail” means it should target all energy companies that feed the Russian state budget — including Nord Stream, Rosatom, Gazprom, and Lukoil.

“The rest of the Russian banks should also be cut off from the SWIFT system, along with the rest of the shadow fleet’s ships. If not, we’ll be seen as weak — as a Europe that isn’t ready to take bold decisions,” the Lithuanian leader warned.

• In May, Friedrich Merz said that if there was no real progress in ending the war, Germany would push for much tougher sanctions against Russia.