Zdanavičius, who is a lecturer at the Military Academy of Lithuania, said that with only a few industries being dependent on Russia, the country should not be feared, but regarded as a potential partner.
"The Lithuanian government is trying to find a balance between economics and politics. Sometimes there are correlations between the two, but I notice that our foreign trade correlates with the oil price, rather than with the political situation (...). The higher the oil price, the more Russia can spend on goods," he said during a presentation of the book on Thursday.
Exports to Russia are important to Lithuania's dairy and pharmaceutical sectors. Lithuania is also depended on Russian electricity and gas imports. But for other sectors, it is not so important, the author said.
Problems with Russia arise when the latter country's businesses invest in natural monopolies. Economic and political relations may then become intertwined, but in other cases, these investments have no impact on the political situation, Zdanavičius maintains.
"As we can see, problems arise where Russia comes to natural monopolies, such as energy and gas. Their investments in manufacturing sector normally cause no problems. For example, investments in the refrigerator manufacturer Snaigė have improved the company's situation and have caused no problems. Therefore, the authorities should pay more attention to the energy sector (...)," he said.
