Putin takes steps to ease Kaliningrad border dispute

Date: 05/09/02

By David Cronin

MOSCOW moved this week to prevent a row escalating with the European Commission over its Baltic territory of Kaliningrad.

Russia has conceded that its citizens in the enclave - which will be surrounded by EU countries after enlargement - will need special transit documents to enter new member states.

But Vladimir Putin's government remains steadfast in opposing a formal EU visa regime for Kaliningrad residents wishing to travel by train or bus into neighbouring Lithuania once it joins the Union.

A new Russian proposal suggests that they could be issued with passes authorising them to cross the border into Lithuania. The idea is contained in a draft 'memorandum of intentions', presented to External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten by Dimitrij Rogozin, Russia's top negotiator on the Kaliningrad question, on Monday.

The memo advocates that the precise nature of the transit documents should be decided by a joint EU-Russian working group, in consultation with Vilnius. Insiders say, though, that Russia isn't budging from its demand that any such documents should not have visa status.

The memo also states that passengers from Kaliningrad will be subject to strict passport controls by both Russian and Lithuanian border guards. Only children under 14 will be allowed to travel without a passport - but they will have to present a birth certificate.

The memo accepts that visas can be issued to car drivers and their passengers, who travel between Kaliningrad and Lithuania. Moreover, it recommends that multiple-entry visas should be issued to frequent cross-border travellers - such as entrepreneurs and truck drivers. Russia has said it will submit a list of professionals within the frequent traveller category by July next year.

Kaliningrad has replaced the conflict in Chechnya as the most sensitive question in EU-Russia relations over the past year.

Commission officials say Russia must respect the fact that when Lithuania and Poland become EU states in 2004 their outer limits will be the Union's external borders; therefore outsiders should need a visa.

But Putin sees the issue as a matter of sovereignty and human rights for the enclave's 950,000 citizens. He argues that Russian citizens in Kaliningrad should not be impeded from travelling to mainland Russia.

Privately, Brussels officials contend that Putin is making travel documents a far bigger issue than they ought to be. The officials cite data indicating that 70 of Kaliningrad's inhabitants have never been to mainland Russia.

But Commission spokeswoman Emma Udwin conceded that Russia is showing a willingness to search for a solution, adding: 'We will go away and study in detail and great care the proposals the Russians have made.'

The memo's main focus is transport between Kaliningrad and Lithuania - rather than Poland, which it also neighbours - as most of the nine million border crossings from Kaliningrad each year are into Lithuania.

The Commission is due to present its own blueprint for breaking the impasse to next month's summit of EU leaders in Brussels.

Russia has moved to prevent a row escalating with the European Commission over its Baltic territory of Kaliningrad.