Kaliningrad. Of Kant and cant

The uses and future of a million Russians stranded in Europe

FOR all the testy rows over the Soviet Union's post-war record, especially in the Baltics, Russia and the European Union managed to shake hands on a deal at their summit in Moscow this week. But to see if airy diplomatese ever translates into real co-operation, consider Kaliningrad, an isolated exclave of Russia on the Baltic Sea.

Of its 950,000 residents, just under half live in the city of Kaliningrad - east Prussia's Konigsberg until Stalin annexed it 60 years ago. Since last year, they have been surrounded by the EU, in the form of Poland and Lithuania. But what might be a showcase for co-operation has often been rancorous, not productive. The issue of transit across Lithuania, of people and goods, was in theory solved last year. But Russia still has gripes. The EU retorts that the Russians inflate details into political rows, using poor Kaliningraders to exert pressure over other issues.

Russia's main aim seems to be to hang on. The bits of Konigsberg not bombed in the war were mostly destroyed by the Russians, and the remaining Germans deported. Besides a restored cathedral, not much of the old town is left. Almost nobody disputes Russia's claim to the city and the flat, depressing patch of land around it. But the Russians like asserting their ownership. Celebrations of the city's 750th anniversary in July will stress Russia's thin historical influence (Immanuel Kant, Kaliningrad's most famous son, will also be feted, perhaps because he lived through a brief period of Russian rule).

For now, Kaliningrad is safe. Such exclaves can be more attached to their motherlands than loved in return: think of loyal Ulster Protestants. Even if Kaliningraders visit the EU more often than Moscow or St Petersburg, most tell pollsters that they feel Russian. Those feelings may be tested when they see how their EU neighbours live. Like the rest of Russia, only more so (because of smuggling), Kaliningrad's economy is hard to measure. But even if it is not doing badly compared with the Russian average, Lithuanians and Poles are doing much better.

The federal and regional governments have tried various wheezes, such as duty-free imports and preferential taxes, to close the gap. The latest plan is to have profit and property-tax discounts for big investors. The region has a fair-sized car plant, a fishing industry and most of the world's amber. It is also home to Russia's antiquated Baltic fleet (in the Soviet years it was a closed military outpost).

Unfortunately, says Georgy Dykhanov, a consultant, the new scheme is an example of mistaken Soviet-style giganticism. Pointing out that the region's tax burden is low compared with its neighbours, Mr Dykhanov says that what is really needed is more support for small enterprise. Land and power are scarce, and opportunities for corruption plentiful. What Kaliningrad most wants is closer integration with the Baltic states. One idea might be to make it a sort of overseas territory. Sergei Pasko, a local businessman, sees it as an autonomous republic within Russia, and an associate member of the EU. But, like the rest of Russia, Kaliningrad will lose local power when Mr Putin appoints its governor under a law passed last year.

The EU worries that a mooted visa-free deal with Kaliningrad would be exploited by other Russians. This week's summit made clear that visa-free entry for all Russians remains far off. The Kremlin may want Kaliningrad not to be too different from its neighbours, but it also wants it not to be too different from other Russian regions. The fear is that, if one slipped out of Moscow's orbit, others might follow.

Moscow's problems with Kaliningrad are in some ways peculiar to the local geography. But they also encapsulate the difficulties of holding together an enormous federal country, many of whose parts are farther away from the centre ethnically, culturally and even physically than Kaliningrad. As elsewhere, the Kremlin's neurotic grasping for control over Russia's regions may ultimately produce the opposite effect of what it intends.

The uses and future of a million Russians stranded 'within' the European Union in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

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