Sweden's foreign minister wants to discuss Kaliningrad issue with Ivanov

Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, together with EU chief diplomat Javier Solana and EU Commissioner for Foreign Relations Chris Patten, will visit Moscow next week to discuss, among other things, issues concerning Russia's nuclear weapons. Currently Sweden heads the European Union. According to U.S. claims, Russia has stationed short-range missiles in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, an assertion the Russians however vehemently deny. Lindh, who will visit Russia in the capacity of Sweden's foreign minister only, said she was going on the assumption that the Russians' claims were true. Formerly known as Koenigsberg, sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania with no direct corridor to Russia's mainland, Kaliningrad has been considered by many a sore thumb in the middle of Europe. Russians living there are extremely poor, suffering from a miserably underdeveloped health care system, rampant organized crime and catastrophic environmental pollution. The area is considered one of the main contributors to the mounting pollution of the North Sea. Many of the nearly one million inhabitants of the enclave try to supplement their low incomes by smuggling alcohol into Poland. (Reuters)