Moscow hopes the EU will formulate its stand on the Kaliningrad region

Moscow hopes that the EU summit in Sevilla, Spain, which begins Friday June 21, will formulate its stand on the Kaliningrad Region, Russia's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told journalists here today. He expressed the hope that the EU will make the decision on the four-party talks of Russia, the EU, Lithuania and Poland on the region.

Igor Ivanov reminded journalists that Russia, Lithuania and Poland "are ready to launch the dialogue" but Brussels "has stubbornly demanded, until recently, that Russia negotiate only with the EU and does not involve Lithuania and Poland." This is why there were no direct talks on the problem of the region, Ivanov said. It was only after the Russia-EU summit in Moscow, where Vladimir Putin "raised the question of the Kaliningrad Region in a harsh form," that Brussels saw that this is a political question for Moscow, Ivanov stressed.

According to the minister, if the Sevilla summit participants make a positive decision on the four-party dialogue, the parties will be able to start discussing visa regime, security and transport issues immediately. "We do not raise questions that would run counter to the interests of the EU," said the minister. Moscow believes that a four-party dialogue on the Kaliningrad Region is "realistic and justified."