Enclave in the west “needs finance and visa-free travel to survive encirclement”

Uncomfortable and uncertain prospects facing Russia's western enclave of Kaliningrad have launched State Duma deputies into new action to safeguard the region's future when it becomes locked and isolated within the boundaries of a wider European Union. They called on Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday (Thursday) for a package of measures to bolster the region's economy and to ensure continued access to Russia after neighbors Poland and Lithuania join the enlarging European community. Deputies sent their appeal to the Kremlin after the Duma's international committee resolved that the country's Security Council should be charged with defining state policy for the territory to be surrounded, according to a report by Russian news agency RIA-Novosti. Their concerns focus on key issues which threaten to affect the daily lives and livelihoods of the 15,100 square kilometer region's nearly one million inhabitants, 430,000 of them concentrated in the capital, Kaliningrad. European Union officials in Brussels maintain that the community's enlargement will be a positive development for its neighbors, contributing to stability and prosperity. Russia stands to benefit substantially from enlargement, they say, saying Kaliningrad's geographical position will lead to gains in the process.