Moscow loses negotiations over Kaliningrad exclave?

Russian officials continue to heap praise on the Kremlin's agreement with the European Union, which will require Russians traveling to and from the Kaliningrad exclave to obtain one of two kinds of "facilitated travel documents." State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee chief Dmitry Rogozin, President Vladimir Putin's special representative on Kaliningrad, told reporters, "This is a complete, very civilized, pragmatic decision with serious positive prospects. We're very satisfied and happy with it - all of us - including, I hope, Vilnius, Brussels and Moscow."

Lithuania says it will not endorse the deal without further guarantees of sovereignty and financial assistance in implementing the agreement.

Despite official praise, the Russian press savaged the deal, saying the travel documents amounted to visas in everything but name, and that Moscow had been put in a humiliating position in being forced to back down.

Vladimir Pribylovsky, president of the political research group Panorama, said the government, particularly Rogozin, who also serves as Russia's representative to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, tried to make the best of a losing situation. "Rogozin's future career depends on whether his work on Kaliningrad is considered a success or a failure. It's in Rogozin's interests to call it a success, although there were no real successes there. It's also convenient for (Russian President Vladimir Putin) to present it as such - well, (the EU) met him halfway because the meaning of the words was changed," Pribylovsky said.

Sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky said Russia might have accepted the deal with few objections because of a sense of having lost political clout abroad following last month's hostage crisis in Moscow.

But analysts have long predicted that Russia would have to back down over Kaliningrad. Moscow's stubborn stance on the issue, they say, may have been aimed more at shoring up public support at home than at actually forcing the EU to back down. Moscow itself called the issue "political."

Presidential envoy Rogozin brushed aside EU concerns over Kaliningrad as primarily "technical." "The Russian president's position was different. He thought it was a deeply political question. The Russian president announced that the character of relations between the Russian Federation and the European Union would depend on how the question would be solved," he said.

In the end, the argument essentially boiled down to semantics, with the Kremlin describing the deal one way and its critics - and the EU - another.

But fine distinctions between "visas" and "facilitated travel documents" are not the only source of concern. Rogozin said Russia also feared an influx of Eastern Europeans seeking work in Kaliningrad, a region he described as attractive to illegal immigrants. Rogozin said that Russia, like the EU, had border concerns of its own.

"The Russian Federation is also operating from an analogous concern over illegal immigration. The Russian Federation is essentially the only East European country that is not an exporter but an importer of illegal immigrants. That's why measures worked out during the talks with the European Union will in many ways have long-term consequences for the Russian Federation itself, in terms of strengthening our own border controls," Rogozin said.

The EU does not appear to share Rogozin's view of Kaliningrad as a lure for opportunity-seeking immigrants. Kaliningrad, a once-closed military zone that was home to the Russian Baltic fleet, has seen its fortunes plummet as state funding dries up. Despite attempts to promote the region as a free economic zone, Kaliningrad, a hub for organized crime and smuggling rings, remains in ruins.

Moscow says the agreement will ultimately improve upon existing visa practices. Rogozin cited as an example the expected use of an electronic ticket system that will inform Russian citizens immediately whether they will be granted passage through Lithuania. Without such a system, Russians would travel all the way to the Lithuanian border before finding out whether they had been denied transit rights, a possibility that Rogozin called "barbaric."

Putin, meanwhile, said he supported an eventual end to all travel regulations. While still in Brussels, the Russian president said: "I don't think the agreement on Kaliningrad is ideal in every way. Free movement of Russian and European citizens to and from their territories will be a permanent solution."

Moscow has also introduced quotas for foreigners seeking temporary residence in Russia. Despite a dwindling population that leaves Russia facing a potential labor shortage, Moscow has decided to grant temporary residence to just under half a million foreigners next year. The measures are ostensibly aimed at curbing the influx of low-paid workers from Central Asia and other regions. With the exception of Georgia, Russia has visa-free travel arrangements with all the CIS states.

But Pribylovsky of the Panorama political research group said that Russia's borders are so porous that the quotas will actually have no effect - another indication that any Russian hopes of integrating with the EU are still premature.