The line of cars snakes back several kilometers along this side of the Russian-Polish border as small traders wait hours to make a few euros on a load of booze, cigarettes and gasoline.
Decisions taken by top European Union and Russian officials at a Moscow summit May 29 will determine the fate of these traders and the other million or so residents of Russia's Kaliningrad region, wedged on the Baltic Sea between Poland and Lithuania.
Residents of the Russian exclave do not as yet need visas to enter either country, but both Warsaw and Vilnius plan to start demanding visas next year as part of preparations to join the EU, raising fears of isolation among Kaliningraders.
Ferrying booze, cigs and gasoline across the border may be a tedious way of earning a living, but there aren't many other options in Kaliningrad - a former German territory half the size of Belgium - and northeastern Poland.
"This time it wasn't too long - 14 hours," the driver of an immaculate Audi said with a sardonic smile.
Some take only the legal limit, but with the long wait it has become hard to make much money, so the driver said he slips customs officers $5 to take additional vodka and cigarettes, which cost twice as much in Poland as in Russia.
He also siphons most of the gasoline out of his tank and sells it to a Polish middleman.
With high-octane unleaded gasoline costing just 10.7 rubles ($0.34) per liter in Kaliningrad, or slightly over one-third of the price in Poland, selling fuel is a great money-spinner.
The probable introduction of a visa regime is a headache, but traders are aiming to make hay while the sun shines.
"Profit while we can until the visas come," was the near-universal refrain.
The cut-off date is likely to be July 1, 2003.
Lithuania and Poland have said they will begin demanding visas as of that date so that they can be ready to join the EU by the self-declared deadline of Jan. 1, 2004.
While Poland and Lithuania have indicated they plan to issue inexpensive multi-entry visas, the Russian media have whipped up fears over the issue.
The Russian press has warned of a "blue curtain" being drawn around the enclave, a reference to the color of the EU flag and the Iron Curtain that kept Eastern Europeans from traveling to the West during the Soviet era.
Russian diplomats speak in no less apocalyptic terms. "Kaliningrad will find itself encircled by the union on all sides, like Leningrad was besieged by German troops during World War Two," Russian diplomat Vladimir Pisariuk told a group of foreign journalists visiting the exclave.
The region's situation is exceptional, and an exceptional solution is needed, he argued.
Russia has demanded a visa-free travel corridor through Poland or Lithuania, similar to the corridor West Germany had to Berlin, but the two countries and the EU rejected the idea.
"To ensure our security we want to know who is on our territory," said Catherine Day, a top European Commission official during a recent visit to Kaliningrad to discuss the region's problems.
Small-scale smuggling is just the tip of the iceberg of the EU's concerns about the region which has become a center of disease, environmental problems and organized crime.
Please enter your username and password.
2024 © The Baltic Times /Cookies Policy
