Russian Foreign Ministry to play key role in interdepartmental work group on Kaliningrad

The Russian Foreign Ministry is expected to play a key role in the interdepartmental work group on Kaliningrad (Russian enclave in Europe), which will be set up in the nearest future, deputy chairman of the Duma committee on international affairs, Leonid Slutsky, was quoted as saying to the journalists on Monday.

Commenting on the recent appointment of the Duma committee chairman, Dmitry Rogozin, as the Russian President's special representative on Kaliningrad region problems, due to EU expansion, Slutsky expressed hope, that he will succeed in consolidating the efforts of different ministries and departments to find solutions for all kinds of Kaliningrad-related issues, and primarily the problem of transit.

Slutsky called the appointment "well-timed" and said that Rogozin "had wide experience of contacting with his colleagues, in particular, in PACE, on this problem." The step should not be taken as the admission of the Foreign Ministry's incapability of solving the Kaliningrad problems, Slutsky stressed. "Rogozin is the President's special representative and will actively use our international department in his work." "Today, there's only one way for us to participate in search of solutions - to have a reasonable position on each separate issue, that is, to find schemes that can be accomplished," Slutsky said, speaking on the ways of solving the problem of transit between Russia and Kaliningrad. He found the idea of "sealed carriages hard to fulfill," and instead, called the project of "holographic cards replacing the Schengen visas not only rational, but also accomplishable."