Eglė Digrytė
Updated: 18 January 2017
By Eglė Digrytė
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Lithuania-Belarus: The new Iron Curtain
15min (Vilnius) 1 -
Lithuania-Russia: Stubbing out Kaliningrad’s illicit cigarette trade
15min (Vilnius) 4
In the Soviet era, when Lithuania and Belarus were both part of the USSR, there were several villages spanning a border that existed only on paper. Today, crossing from one side to the other has become a nightmare. 
In spite of the installation of increasingly sophisticated surveillance equipment, Lithuanian authorities are still struggling to eradicate a highly lucrative cross-border traffic in cigarettes with the neighbouring Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Their task is made all the more difficult by the wide variety of interests served by the illegal trade.