Exclave visa deal on table

  • 2002-09-19
  • Rokas M. Tracevskis
VILNIUS

Russia's special envoy for Kaliningrad promised to jump-start stalled border negotiations between Vilnius and Moscow if Lithuania backs off demands to require visas for Kaliningrad residents when the Baltic country joins the European Union.

Dmitry Rogozin, in Vilnius for a one-day visit Sept. 16, said he would personally see to it that a border agreement, held up in the Russian Duma since 1997, is initialed if Lithuania breaks ranks with the EU position on Kaliningrad.

Brussels has said that all residents of the Russian region, cut off from the rest of the country by Lithuania and Poland, will have to get visas to travel through these countries after they join the EU.

"I'll take care of it, not some anonymous official," Rogozin said of the border agreement. "I'll break all kinds of opposition to this agreement in the Duma if we find a solution to the Kaliningrad issue."

Russia has called the EU position, which Lithuania has supported, unacceptable and has said a different solution will have to be found.

Lithuania currently has a visa-free regime for Kaliningrad residents but has said it will abolish it in line with EU directives.

The country hopes to join the EU by 2004.

Lithuania and Russia signed a border agreement in 1997, but ratification has been slow in coming as deputies in the Duma, Russia's lower house of Parliament, have kept it from coming to a vote.Rogozin, who met with President Valdas Adamkus and other officials, said Russia is also ready to sign an agreement with Lithuania on re-admission of illegal immigrants, but only after the Kaliningrad issue is solved.

Officials here are worried that illegals from the Commonwealth of Independent States and Asia currently in Russia could try to reach the West via Lithuania. If caught, they could not be returned to Russia without a re-admission agreement.

Lithuanian media have been skeptical of Rogozin's quid-pro-quo offer.

"Lithuania did ratify the border agreement and has lived without the Duma's ratification for five years," wrote political analyst Rimvydas Valatka in the daily Lietuvos Rytas. "Lithuania can live without it for the next 500 years."

Rogozin, appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin as special envoy for Kaliningrad, said visas for Russian citizens traveling to Russia would violate the territorial integrity of the country.

He said Russia might be willing to consider some type of visa or pass for Kaliningraders crossing Lithuania by car, but he said passengers on trains and buses should not be subject to the visa regime.

"We insist that train and bus travelers be able to cross Lithuania without visas. Such travels could be under the control of Lithuanian police. It is understandable that police cannot lead each individual car, so, we do not ask for visa-free travel for those who travel by car. It shows that Russia's position is flexible," Rogozin said during a short briefing.

Trains crossing Lithuania would not stop in Vilnius or Kaunas, he added, and rejected fears that asylum-seekers could jump off while on Lithuanian territory.

Gediminas Kirkilas, head of the Lithuanian Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, said Rogozin was more reasonable in official, closed-door negotiations than in his media comments and said ongoing EU discussions about issuing Kaliningrad residents a special pass - a visa in everything but name - may be the face-saving gesture Russia needs to agree to Brussels' position.

Kirkilas has previously said that the Kremlin really does not want visa-free travel for Kaliningraders because visits to the wealthier countries of Lithuania and Poland will only give rise to separatist, anti-Moscow sentiment in Kaliningrad.