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EU, Russia deal on Kaliningrad
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Russia and the European Union have struck a deal on the sensitive issue of access to Kaliningrad after EU enlargement into eastern Europe, defusing a row that has soured relations for the last year. Kaliningrad, a Baltic outpost of about a million people, will be surrounded by EU territory once its neighbours Poland and Lithuania join the wealthy bloc, probably in 2004. "I am happy to announce that we have reached an agreement on the question of transit between the Kaliningrad region and the rest of the Russian Federation," Reuters quoted Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as saying after talks in Brussels with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The EU would issue documents from next July to permit travel through Lithuania to and from Kaliningrad and pledged flexibility in the meantime. Putin said the deal removed some of Russia's main concerns about the EU's eastward enlargement. Moscow had been determined to avoid its citizens being forced to apply for visas to travel from one part of Russian territory to another. Hundreds of anti-Chechen war protesters demonstrated outside the venue of the EU-Russia summit. Even before the conference started on Monday, the military action in Chechnya had cast a shadow over the summit. Criticism of Russia's human rights record in the Chechen republic, which is fighting for independence from Moscow, was also on the agenda. The summit had been moved to the EU's Council of Ministers building in Brussels from Denmark because of Russian anger that the Danes had allowed a conference of Chechen exiles to be held on Danish soil. Summit host Rasmussen told Danish radio: "We of course support Russia in the fight against terrorism. But it is not a long-term solution to the Chechnya problem to launch a military action and bomb the country to pieces. "We urge the Russians to find a political solution and to negotiate with responsible Chechen leaders and find a long-term solution." Putin on Sunday ruled out talks with what he called "terrorists," including Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov. (Full story) On Monday, Kremlin aide Sergei Yastrzhembsky told reporters that Russia was committed to reaching a political settlement in Chechnya -- but not through Maskhadov. "Maskhadov with his own hands closed off any possibility of taking part in any sort of political process, and can no longer be considered a legitimate candidate for holding any sort of talks with Russia," Yastrzhembsky said. But protesters saw the situation differently. French philosopher Andrei Glucksmann told the crowd: "The war in Chechnya is a colonial war. "(Soviet dictator Josef) Stalin carried out action to deport the Chechens and the Russian army is once again exterminating the Chechen people. If the EU bows to Putin they lose their European heritage." Under the proposed accord, Russians would be able to travel between Kaliningrad and Russia proper after receiving either a multiple re-entry transit pass or a so-called "light" document which would allow for one-off return trips only by train. Russia initially objected to the visas, arguing Russian citizens were effectively just travelling from one part of Russia to another. But the EU was concerned that a Kaliningrad surrounded by the EU would become a magnet for organised criminal gangs. One concern was that people smugglers could use Kaliningrad as a base for easy entry into the neighbouring EU nations, which in turn would open up the whole EU which operates an 'open borders' policy between member states.
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