Russia and Poland agree to further talks with EU on Kaliningrad enclave

Polish foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski and his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov announced in Moscow yesterday their agreement to hold further talks with European Union members on the effects of EU expansion to the Baltic states that could isolate the Kaliningrad wedge of Russian territory between Poland and Lithuania. Speaking at a joint news conference, Ivanov said “We are ready to conduct consultation with out neighbors in order that expansion and Polish and Lithuanian entry into the EU will not engender any problems which will have to be solved later.”Kaliningrad officials have expressed fears that the entrance of their neighbors to the EU could isolate and impoverish the enclave’s 1,000,000 inhabitants, limiting their freedom of movement to the Russian “mainland.”Their visa-free travel to Poland and Lithuania is likewise threatened. Bartoszewski notes that “Poland...will support deepened partnership between Russia and the European Union, treating the issues pertaining to Kaliningrad as an element of removing economic and social barriers on the European continent.”(Reuters)