In Interests of Kaliningrad, Klaipeda Should Become 'Free Town'

Viktor Alksnis, State Duma deputy, member of the Russia's Regions group of deputies, and deputy chairman of the Duma committee on international affairs, yesterday promised Kaliningrad's inhabitants that soon, together with Vladimir Nikitin, the Kaliningrad Region's representative in the Duma, he would make a special statement on the town of Klaipeda and the Memel Region in Lithuania. According to Rosbalt's correspondent, he made this announcement at a meeting in Kaliningrad to discuss issues relating to the region's development. The meeting included representatives of the executive and legislative branches of the regional government, as well as members of the Russia's Regions parliamentary group.

According to Alksnis, Klaipeda should be declared a free town and port in order to safeguard the interests of the Kaliningrad Region. The deputy remarked that we should not forget that the Soviet Union invested USD 2 billion in the construction of a Klaipeda-Kaliningrad-Mukran ferry service. These opportunities need to be used to ease Kaliningrad's transit problem.

Alksnis said that the agreements which define Russia's relationship with Lithuania were reached in the 'revolutionary frenzy' of the early 1990s. Nobody wants to see what consequences this could lead to for the Russian enclave, which is why, in the light of EU expansion, debates in the State Duma on the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop protocols and other similar documents are a warning for the Kaliningrad Region's neighbours.