Lithuania to end visa-free travel

Lithuania last week revoked visa-free travel for citizens of Russia's Kaliningrad region and Belarus in a move that brings it into line with the visa regime of the European Union.

The decision came just days before EU foreign ministers met in Brussels Sept. 30 to discuss the Kaliningrad issue and brings Lithuania into line with the Schengen Agreement, a pact among most EU countries, Norway and Iceland in which one visa is issued for travel to all 15 Schengen members.

Russians going to or from Kaliningrad by train will need visas beginning Jan. 1, 2003, while those crossing Lithuania by car will have until July 1, 2003.

Visa privileges for Russian truckers will also be revoked in January, as they will for certain groups of Belarusians, including pensioners, people who live near the border and truckers.

Kaliningrad residents, cut off from the rest of the country by Lithuania and Poland, have enjoyed visa-free rights for travel since 1995 and Belarusians since 1994.

Russians from the rest of the country have always needed visas to enter Lithuania.

Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis said the decision was made in light of EU accession talks. Lithuania, along with Latvia and Estonia, hope to join by 2004.

"We have proposed many times that Russia and Belarus negotiate the issue of visas in view of Lithuania's eventual EU membership and participation in the Schengen Treaty, but we never received a response," he said.

Moscow and the EU have been in negotiations about Kaliningrad's future, with Brussels demanding Kaliningraders get visas to travel across Lithuania or Poland once these countries enter the union.

Russia has called visa requirements for Kaliningraders "unacceptable" and has so far been cool to an alternative EU proposal that would offer special passes good for up to 36 hours to Kaliningrad residents at cut rate prices -- essentially, a cheap transit visa by another name.

"This would not be called a visa, but in practice it is the same visa, just easier obtainable. Russia wanted to avoid the term 'visa,'" said Gediminas Kirkilas, Lithuania's special envoy for Kaliningrad issues.

Valionis said he expected some kind of EU-Russia agreement by the end of the year and said Lithuania would be flexible provided it did not impede the country's progress toward the EU.

He said Lithuania would seek "maximum benefit for Lithuanian nationals" in any EU-brokered agreement, including businessmen with interests in Kaliningrad and its own citizens who travel to Russia and Belarus.

Valionis said the country would only consider an EU proposal for fast-train service for Kaliningraders after officially joining the Schengen area in the future.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Sept. 25 urged Lithuania and Poland to grant visa privileges to Kaliningrad residents for transit journeys to and from the Kaliningrad region.

But it rejected a proposal by Russia's envoy to Kaliningrad for visa-free travel for Kaliningraders crossing Lithuania by train.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sept. 26 he hoped the parties could come to a "civilized" solution in the near future.

Lithuania and Poland, however, got a strong endorsement from Russian talk-show host Vladimir Pozner. In an interview with the daily Lietuvos Rytas, he called the Kaliningrad issue "Russia's problem."

"This piece of land never belonged to Russia. It is a consequence of the postwar Potsdam Treaty," Pozner said. "Who's problem is this? Of course, it's Russia's problem. Russia did not have to take that piece of land after World War II. Now Lithuania has the right to demand visas from those who travel across its territory. There is nothing to discuss."