June 10, 2002. Copyright 2002. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

Baltic enclave will test Russia-EU relations at Seville summit

LONDON, June 10, Graphic News: The EU summit in Seville on June 21-22 will again attempt to overcome the first major external obstacle to looming Union enlargement: the future of a tiny sliver of Russia called Kaliningrad.
The enclave, which was once German East Prussia until Stalin annexed it as spoils of war in 1945, will be land-locked on three sides if Poland and Lithuania join the EU, probably by 2004.
The Kaliningrad Russians -- about 1.3 million people -- will be stranded in a poor, semi-forgotten corner of Russia where crime, corruption, and Aids are rife. And if Lithuania is invited to join NATO at the November summit in Prague, the former-Soviet armyÕs western outpost will become a Russian ÒislandÓ inside NATO.
After 15 months of hard bargaining the EU and Russia continue to disagree on freedom of movement for the people of the enclave. Brussels insists on introducing EU visas for Russians travelling to and from Kaliningrad via Lithuania or Poland, a demand which Russian president Vladimir Putin describes as an affront to the Òcivilised communityÓ and a violation of basic human rights.
ÒWe donÕt have the right not to observe fundamental human rights there,Ó Putin said after meeting the European commission president, Romano Prodi, and the Spanish prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, current holder of the EUÕs presidency. Putin specified that under such conditions, the right granted to a Russian citizen to maintain free contacts with their relatives living elsewhere in Russia would depend on a decision of a different foreign state. His apparent strength of feeling may be reinforced by the fact that his wife, Lyudmila, is from Kaliningrad.
In early May the EU dismissed as unacceptable Russian proposals for special 160-mile (260km) rail and freight corridors through Lithuania, linking Russia and Kaliningrad. An EU insider said that proposals for visa-free rail travel for Russians across Lithuania would result in Channel tunnel-type scenarios of illegal immigrants clinging to the trains to enter the EU.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko said the EUÕs proposal to introduce Shengen visas would mean the partitioning of Russia. ÒIt is unacceptable. Politically, it is unconstitutional,Ó he said.
Among the solutions being considered by Brussels -- but strongly criticised by Moscow -- is the suggestion that Kaliningrad residents be transported in sealed train cars accompanied by police. Others include cheap multi-entry visas for Kaliningrad residents, Ukrainians and Belarussians, and free visas for young people and students.
/ENDS

Sources: UPI, Reuters, BBC World Service