Kaliningrad residents will need visas to Poland

During talks yesterday on the future of Kaliningrad after Polish and Lithuanian accession to the EU, Prime Minister Leszek Miller said that Poland would introduce visas for the region's citizens in accordance with EU requirements. Kaliningrad is a particularly thorny issue for EU expansion, as it a part of Russian territory that is geographically separated from the rest of the country, and could be entirely surrounded by the EU after expansion. Miller stressed that visas would be easily granted, inexpensive and multiple-entry. However, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov stated that he hoped travel between Russia and Poland would be based on more favorable terms. Chris Patten, the European Commissioner for External Affairs, added that though the EU wanted to reach a deal with Moscow, it could not waive strict visa rules for inhabitants of the region. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, A5; Reuters) P.J.