Federation Council head discusses Kaliningrad problem during visit to Poland

At the negotiations of Chairman of the Federation Council Sergey Mironov,who is currently on an official visit to Poland, with Speaker of the PolishSenate Longin Pastusiak, the parties touched upon the problem ofKaliningrad. As Sergey Mironov stated after the meeting, introduction of avisa regime for Russians for visiting the Kaliningrad region "violates theindependence and derogates from the national dignity of Russians". Mironovbelieves that a technical solution for this problem is possible.At the same time, in Mironov's opinion, it is necessary to discuss thisissue more widely, "as Europe is hard to imagine without Russia, and thefuture of Europe is a future without borders". In connection with this, thehead of the Russian upper house believes that a visa-free regime should beintroduced for Russians for visiting the countries of the European Union.Mironov pointed out that the Russian party shared the concerns of Polandregarding a possible entry of criminals to the territory of the country ifa visa-free regime was introduced. However, one should not state a toughposture, it is necessary to look for a compromise.In his turn, Pastusiak stated that Poland's position regarding the visaissue depended on the position of the EU, to which Poland is to ascend in2004. He also reported that during the negotiations, Mironov assured hiscounterpart that Russia was ready to make its borders impenetrable fornon-citizens of Russia..