Governor of Kaliningrad region proposes his plan of transport communication with other regions of Russia

According to the report of the RIA Novosti correspondent, on Wednesday at a press conference in the media center of the Izvestia newspaper governor of the Kaliningrad region Vladimir Yegorov stated that the simplest solution to the problem of transport communication of the Kaliningrad region (the Russian enclave on the coast of the Baltic sea) with the mainland Russia after expansion of the European Union would be the sealed carriages regime.

In this connection he reminded the audience that the similar regime existed between Finland and Estonia when carriages were transiting the Russian territory.

While talking about transit of people the governor considered "the closed doors regime" to be the optimal one. Yegorov reminded those present that the only stop in the territory of Lithuania the Moscow-Kaliningrad train made in Vilnius. At the same time, in his opinion, even that stop was not necessary if the Lithuanian side wished that. In addition to that, according to the governor, Lithuanian frontier guards might stay on board the train going from Kaliningrad to Russia during the whole trip or from the moment the train entered Lithuania till it left the republic.

While talking about the motor-car transit Yegorov indicated that Russia was proposing two transit routes across the territory of Lithuania: the first one, through the city of Sovetsk, runs 260 km across the Lithuanian territory, the second one, through Nesterov, amounted to 130 km across the Lithuanian territory. Yegorov stated that specific enroute parking locations would be marked where the drivers could get their cars refuelled and could have some rest. According to him, all technical details could be later discussed. The most important thing, in his opinion, is to agree on that matter in principle.

In reply to the question regarding the proposal of the European Union to solve the problem through issuance of plastic cards Yegorov stated that "being technical, the matter should be considered by experts."