Russia Clinches Deal with EU over Kaliningrad

EU leaders met with Russian Premier Vladimir Putin in Brussels on Monday and thrashed out a final agreement on access to the soon-to-be surrounded enclave of Kaliningrad.

Putin struck a deal with the European Union on Kaliningrad, due to be surrounded by EU countries after the accession of the ten candidate states, removing a serious obstacle to the biggest ever enlargement of the European Union in 2004.

The Russian president gave the green light to the hard- fought agreement which will see the issue of a multiple-entry transit document for travel to all Kaliningrad residents from next July. Another separate document will allow for trips by train.

The agreement was reached despite extensive last-minute haggling by the Russians. The Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen currently in charge of the rotating EU presidency, told the British daily The Guardian that the "strategic partnership" between Russia and the EU had "found the right balance between all the interests involved".

The agreement provides access for the enclave's 1.5m-strong Russian population to the Russian mainland once the EU is enlarged to the east.

Russians wanted unhindered access to enclave

President Putin had previously insisted that residents of Kaliningrad should be able to travel freely to and from the Russian mainland through the prospective EU countries of Poland and Lithuania, should EU enlargement go ahead without any further problems.

The EU had rejected Russian proposals earlier in the year fearing that the crime-riddled enclave might export its notorious drug trafficking and smuggling to the prospective member states.

The Russians responded angrily, claiming the EU rules requiring the enclave's one million citizens to have visas to travel to the rest of Russia would be 'humiliating'.

EU compromise satisfactory for Russia

Now, Russia has accepted the EU's compromise of the "Kaliningrad pass", which will allow frequent travelers to reach mainland Russia without a conventional visa.

EU - Russian relations have warmed considerably over the past two years. Only last week President Putin was granted one of his main wishes with the EU formally recognizing Russia as a market economy, thus easing the way for it to export more to western Europe and join the World Trade Organization. Official sources hinted that the announcement was deliberately timed to improve the atmosphere of the Brussels summit.

The atmosphere at the summit, however, became strained once the subject of Chechnya came up.

EU says talks not tanks will solve Chechen problem

President Putin sent soldiers back into the breakaway rebel republic in the aftermath of the Moscow theatre siege and while the Kremlin believes that conducting a new military crackdown in the rebel republic is the way to break the deadlock, the EU insists that political dialogue is the only way ahead.

At the end of the summit, the combined statement put out on the subject was described as 'tepid'. The EU and Russia both condemned terrorism without commenting specifically on Chechnya.

Within the four walls of the summit meeting room, things were a little hotter, according to Chris Patten, the EU external relations commissioner who described the exchanges on the Chechen issue as "lively".

"I could not say that we had a meeting of minds," he said.

Afterwards, President Putin was visibly annoyed by journalists' questions about his decision to commit more troops to the rebel republic and described the Chechen separatists as "religious extremists and international terrorists".

The war in Chechnya had cast a shadow over the summit even before it began. Just two weeks ago, Denmark, holder of the EU presidency, had to change the venue from Copenhagen to Brussels, after President Putin threatened to boycott Monday's summit if the Chechen World Congress was held in the Danish capital.

The Russians then issued a request for the extradition of Chechen rebel envoy, Akhmed Zakayev from Denmark to face charges of terrorist activities in Russia and Chechnya. The Danes are still considering the request.