Baltiisk-Saint Petersburg Ferry Crossing to Open in January 2003

The Baltiisk-Saint Petersburg ferry crossing will open on 1st January 2003. As a Rosbalt correspondent reports, Governor of the Kaliningrad Region Vladimir Yegorov confirmed this on Tuesday at a press conference and added that the ferries of the pacific ocean fleet will be used on the crossing, including the ferry Rus.

The governor commented that the Kaliningrad-Saint Petersburg crossing has been in operation since July 2001 but that the number of passengers is too high for this crossing alone. Yegorov said that he is doing everything he can to ensure that the region does not become isolated. The governor considers the development of the railways to be very important. He expressed the hope that the Russian President's proposal of a train to Kaliningrad without stops in Lithuania will eventually be accepted by the European Union. Yegorov says that Spain, Italy and Greece approve of this proposal.

The governor of the region said that air transport will also be used as much as possible to maintain links with the rest of Russia. A proposal for an increase in the flow of air traffic has already been shown to President Putin. These questions and others will be discussed during the upcoming visit of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov to Kaliningrad on the 21-22 October.