From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 7/3/2005 9:08 AM
Jul 1 2005 9:41PM
Sergei Yastrzhembsky: Foreign journalists shouldn't advise us on Kaliningrad

Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the Russian presidential envoy to the European Union, complained on Friday about comments in Polish and Lithuanian media in connection with planned celebrations of the 750th anniversary of Kaliningrad.

"We are concerned about the speculative character of some publications in the mass media by the closest neighbors of the Kaliningrad region and about attempts by the authors of the publications to give us some advice, or even force on Russia, their vision of the format for the celebration of the city's jubilee," Yastrzhembsky told Interfax.

"If things keep going at this rate, soon we'll probably hear from the same sources what Russians should eat and drink, how they should dress and what they should say," he said.

Yastrzhembsky said the governor and legislature of the Kaliningrad region and the mayor of Kaliningrad city had sent invitations to the festivities to 14 countries.

"In particular, there will be the number one persons from four Polish provinces and the leaders of five Lithuanian districts. Altogether, 75 guests (23 delegations) will come from Poland and 45 guests (19 delegations) from Lithuania," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac "on the basis of the well-known European troika format. It will be one of their regular working meetings, and this time the Kaliningrad area has been chosen as the venue for it," Yastrzhembsky said.

"The meeting has nothing to do with the program of jubilee festivities either from the viewpoint of content or from the viewpoint of protocol with one exception - the name of the great German philosopher [Immanuel] Kant will be given to Kaliningrad University. It is expected that the Russian president and German chancellor will take part in this ceremony. I don't think it needs to be explained to anyone why it will have this format," Yastrzhembsky said.

"The celebrations of the 750th anniversary of Kaliningrad has three dimensions - pan-Russian, regional and European. The pan-Russian dimension is naturally the chief one for us - a meeting of the State Council under the chairmanship of the Russian president will become the key political event in the celebration program. Representatives of all Russian regions will gather in Kaliningrad for the first time," Yastrzhembsky said.

New law will mean more capital investment in Kaliningrad

Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the Russian presidential envoy to the European Union, predicted on Friday that a larger flow of investment would come into the Kaliningrad region after a bill giving Kaliningrad a special economic zone status becomes law.

"There is every reason to believe that this law may come out in September," Yastrzhembsky told Interfax.

The bill has passed its first reading in the State Duma.

"Investment in the Kaliningrad region has been insufficient in volume. This has to do with prospects for a Kaliningrad special economic zone that have been unclear until recently. One would expect that, with the adoption of the new law on the special economic zone, the problems that have in the past been slowing down the inflow of foreign investment into the region would be eliminated automatically. Both Russian and foreign investors will be much more active," Yastrzhembsky said.

He said the federal authorities had recently been paying close attention to the problems of the Kaliningrad region.

"The population of the region has no reason to complain about the lack of attention to the problems of the region. In no other Russian region has such a number of decisions and special legislative acts been passed since the start of the 90s. A special federal program has been developed for the Kaliningrad region," Yastrzhembsky said.

Kaliningrad has become one of the main issues at Russia-EU summits, he said. A summit in The Hague in 2004 resulted in an agreement to build a mechanism for the discussion of Kaliningrad's development in the context of EU enlargement.

"On Thursday, I had a meeting in Brussels with EU Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, and she reaffirmed her readiness to begin, jointly with the Russian envoy [Yastrzhembsky], active work to solve urgent problems of the Kaliningrad region," Yastrzhembsky said.

He said considerable success had been achieved at talks on Kaliningrad freight transit.

"It can be said now that there is light at the end of the tunnel," Yastrzhembsky said.

"Primarily, it is the solution of problems of railway transportation tariffs and agreements on the development of the so-called 2K project for two Baltic ports - Kaliningrad and Klaipeda. Furthermore, consent has essentially been obtained from the Lithuanian side for the recognition of Russian insurance for freight transported through Lithuanian territory," he said.

http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/exclusive/29.html?mode=9&title_style=exclus&others=2&id_issue=11319278