Vladimir Putin's special envoy: Russia and EU are advancing towards resolving Kaliningrad issue

Dmitry Rogozin, the Russian President's special envoy for the Kaliningrad problem, believes that Russia and the European Union are closer to a solution of that problem than they were in September. According to the head of the international committee of the State Duma, his latest meetings with European politicians allow him to draw such a conclusion.

President Putin's special envoy told pressmen in Moscow on Thursday that the EU and Russia have fully analyzed the legal versions of the settlement of the Kaliningrad issue and all the sides have to do now is to "display political will."

Rogozin met with Christopher Patten, member of the Eurocommission and Per Stig Moller, Foreign Minister of Denmark, in the State Duma on Thursday. Denmark currently holds the rotating EU presidency. The participants in the meeting discussed, in particular, the issue of the transition, in future, to visa-free trips of citizens of the EU and the Russian Federation on a reciprocal basis, said the representative of the Russian President. Rogozin said that "doubtlessly that subject will be reflected at the summit of the EU and Russia in Copenhagen in November. Rogozin stressed at the same time that the Russian side "does not tie up the given subject with the problem of Kaliningrad."