Russia is not satisfied with Lithuania's proposal to allow Kaliningrad residents to travel in the territory of Lithuania no further than 30-50 kilometers from the border, which is in compliance with EU rules.
"We talked about border movement as Kaliningrad residents want to travel to Lithuania but they are not comfortable with the existing restrictions in the framework of the European Union, the 30-50 kilometer zone. We suggest opening the entire territory of Kaliningrad and am analogue territory of Lithuania for people to be able to visit cities, tourism centers ,and do shopping and not travel to see grey fields," Chkhikvadze commented after a meeting with Lithuanian speaker of parliament Vydas Gedvilas.
In his words, Russia would be satisfied with the same visa-free procedure it has with Poland. Last year, Moscow and Warsaw signed an agreement on a visa-free regime between Kaliningrad Region and a larger part of Poland.
Lithuania is not against including the whole region of Kaliningrad but is of the opinion that Kaliningrad residents should be able to travel without visas in the territory of Lithuania only 30-50 kilometers from the Lithuanian-Kaliningrad border. Vilnius believes the facilitation of border-crossing with Russia might lead to an increase in smuggling and the flow of people might not be properly controlled.
