Federation Council's Speaker to discuss problems around Kaliningrad region

Sergey Mironov, Speaker of the Federation Council (the upper house of theRussian parliament), is going to discuss problems around the Kaliningradregion, Russia's exclave, prior to the expansion of the European Unionduring his visit to Poland on August 28-29. The Speaker reported theseplans at a meeting with journalists today. He stressed that Russia'sprinciple position was not to tolerate that Russian citizens would have toreceive visas for traveling in other regions of Russia. According toMironov, this would contradict human rights and freedoms.The Speaker stressed that double standards should not be applied to thesettlement of this problem. He noted that the question was not aboutpolitical but technical settlement of this problem, which will be found andwhich will be acceptable both for the European Union and Russia.The Federation Council's Speaker noted that these problems would also beconsidered during his visit to Kaliningrad, scheduled for September 6-8,2002..