Presidents’ problems

Authors:

Nikolay Makarov

Last week, a ferryboat called “Baltiysk”, which is capable to carry more than a hundred of railroad cars, arrived in the Ust-Luga port. The ferry crossing was opened by President of Russia Vladimir Putin. This is how Russia is solving a part of the problem of Kaliningrad transit. Experts believe that the major portion of unresolved problems in relations with Lithuania and Poland can be settled at a trilateral summit.

 

The relations of Russia with the neighbouring states began to worsen after the change of their heads. A year ago, the Rights won the presidential elections in Poland – Lech Kaczynski became the head of the state. However, after the victory at the elections in the autumn of 2005 he declared his intention to improve relations with Russia and Germany, the positions of which he often criticized during the election campaign. At the same time the president of Poland made it clear that he would not go to the capital of Russia for negotiations with Vladimir Putin: “After A. Kwasniewski’s six visits to Moscow (the predecessor of Kaczynski in the office of the president of Poland. – ed.) I will not go there”.

The Russian party did not respond to that, and by the spring the tone of Mr Kaczynski’s statements had somewhat changed. He stated his readiness to meet with his Russian colleague on neutral territory. “There are many countries in the world that are neither Russia, nor Poland”, Kaczynski said. In addition, he stated there was a need to resist the pressure of Russia on neighbours in the field of energy. One should mention here a well-known deal concerning the selling of the “Mazeikiu nafta” oil refinery to the Polish company named “Orlen”. This was the starting point of the aggravation of the relations between Russia and Lithuania, because “Lukoil” and “TNK-BP” laid their claims to the “Mazeikiu nafta”. On May 27, the government of Lithuania decided to sell the refinery to Poland. The deal amounted to $1,492 bn. In late July there was a breakdown of the oil pipeline “Druzhba” in the Bryansk Region, through which oil is supplied to the Lithuanian oil refinery. Russian authorities announced the repair of the oil pipeline would take not less than 9 months. In response, unaccredited sources of the governing body of Lithuania announced about a possible repair of the railway lines that lead to the Kaliningrad Oblast. In addition, the presidents of Lithuania and Poland spoke out many times against the construction of the North-European Gas Pipeline by Russia and Germany. However, it did not prevent the latter to start works, and now Poland and Lithuania are thinking of joining the project. “This project is essential for the economic development of the Baltic States, and we wish that our interests are met when it is constructed and commissioned”, stressed President of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus in one of his statements. Meanwhile, in reply to the threats to the Kaliningrad transit Russia has launched a freight ferry crossing from Baltiysk to Ust-Luga. A trilateral meeting of the heads of the states can help solve the problems accumulated in the Russian-Polish and Russian-Lithuanian relations. The most suitable place for such a summit, as experts believe, is the Kaliningrad Oblast. The region that borders on Poland and Lithuania is linked to these states with tight economic and cultural ties. This meeting could be held within the framework of the celebration of 60th anniversary of the oblast. But in the spring the authorities declared this was an internal holiday and presidents of the neighbouring states would not be invited. Political scientist Vladimir Abramov is of the opinion that this is actually a consequence of bad relations with Poland and Lithuania. In addition, he drew attention to the fact that not long ago there was a governmental crisis in Lithuania and the neighbours could not plan official visits. However, Abramov does not exclude the possibility of the meeting of the presidents of Russia, Poland and Lithuania. He believes that heads of other Baltic states can be invited to the summit too: “One can arrange a Baltic summit with the heads of Sweden and Finland, but first one needs to come to an agreement with Poland, which is difficult and hard”. Director of the Association of International Experts on the Development of the Kaliningrad Oblast Alexei Ignatyev considers that one should invite the heads of the European Union to the meeting to discuss a wider range of issues, in particularly, Kaliningrad transit and the facilitation of border crossing. A member of Russia’s Public Chamber Andrey Przhezdomsky in his turn also supported the meeting. “We have more things with Poland and Lithuania that unite, rather than separate us”, Mr Przhezdomsky said. On the whole, experts agree in opinions that the heads of our states need to meet and come to agreements. The only thing remaining is to determine a place and time of this meeting.