He pledged that the issue would be high on the agenda of discussions on Kaliningrad's future at an upcoming session of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, or PACE.
Speaking at a Kaliningrad news conference, Russian Federation Council member Nikolai Tulayev admitted that the introduction of visa requirements for residents of the country's western exclave was inevitable.
However, in his words, "We will work to ensure the possibility that the region's residents get them free of charge, at the expense of the initiators of the new regime."
During the June PACE session, Lithuania will also present its report about Kaliningrad problems related with NATO and European Union expansion.
Lithuania's and Poland's entry to the EU "will restrict free travel for about a million Kaliningrad residents," said Tulayev.
Kaliningrad is wedged between Lithuania and Poland.
"Paradoxically, by introducing the visa requirements, the EU will violate human rights because the citizens of one country will be deprived of the right to freely move from one part of the country to another," he went on.
Lithuania's report on Kaliningrad for the session will be prepared by a member of the country's PACE delegation, Social Democrat MP Sigita Burbiene.
She told BNS she was planning to visit the neighboring Russian exclave this month to get first-hand information about the situation in the region.
In her words, the report will analyze the prospects of the region and give an idea about what the Council of Europe can do for the good of Kaliningrad's residents.
"Visas are a very sensitive issue for Kaliningrad, but the decision to set visa requirements is not an initiative of Lithuania or Poland, but a demand from the EU," she said.
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