23 October 2002 00:00
CONCERNING KALININGRAD TRANSPORT JUNCTION DEVELOPMENT
2002-10-22-004
A freight-passenger automobile ferry is to start operating between Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg on January 1, 2003, enabling citizens of Russia to travel freely to and from the Kaliningrad Region, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov told a press conference in Baltiisk following a conference on the development of the Kaliningrad Transport Junction.
It is expected that the new ferry will be able to carry 40 trailers, 70 cars and 400 passengers at once. As to land transportation of goods to the Kaliningrad Region and from it to other parts of Russia after the EU enlargement, there should be no problems arising here, Kasyanov assured the press. He said in particular that Russia and Lithuania, just as many other countries, are members of an international agreement on transit of goods by which in the transit crossing of borders the cargo is not to be examined. That procedure will remain operative after the enlargement of the European Union.
Kasyanov expressed the confidence that Russia and the European Union will soon find a final mutually acceptable scheme for solving the Kaliningrad problem. He thinks Russia's stand is not tough. "Citizens of the Russian Federation should be able to reach this or that area of their country freely," he said, recalling that the international community had already taken decisions on problems similar to Kaliningrad, and "we have the grounds to ask to be treated with understanding." Furthermore, the head of the Russian Government especially stressed that a solution to be arrived at must take into account the rights of each of the parties.
At the press conference Kasyanov also noted that the lag in the implementation of the federal goal-oriented program for the development of the Kaliningrad Region will be made up for by the end of the current year. At the same time he expressed misgivings that the private sector financing pledges set into this program might not be kept before the end of 2003. "The cause restraining the private sector is the uncertainty of the tax system of the Kaliningrad Region for the next three years," Kasyanov said, adding that this question will be dealt with in the coming weeks.
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© Publication of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
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