During the "Government" hour in the Council of Federation Senator representing Kaliningrad Regional Duma Nicholay Tulaev asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov about the prospects of negotiations with the governments of Poland and Lithuania on the extension of visa free zone so that the entire territory of the Kaliningrad region was eligible.

Sergey Lavrov replied that the Russian-Polish intergovernmental agreement on facilitation of mutual visits of citizens - residents of border territories of Russia and Poland is in the final stage of preparation.

In accordance with existing agreement on small cross-border movement only part of the territory of the Kaliningrad region is eligible, which puts its residents in unequal conditions. In this regard, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Russia and Poland signed a joint appeal to the European Commission to extend EU rules on small cross-border movement to include the whole territory of the Kaliningrad region and adjacent areas of Poland. It was delivered on April 6 this year.

However, the Lithuanian side avoided joining this appeal which was originally planned as tripartite. Minister Lavrov said that he counts on this joint initiative to be successful and that Vilnius would still change its position on the issue.

"Banking on the success of our joint initiatives, including Warsaw and we hope that in Vilnius still change their minds on this issue that would" to the maximum "harness the power of a visa-free cross-border movement in the interest of Kaliningradians and residents of neighboring EU states", - said Sergey Lavrov .

In addition, Nicholay Tulaev asked Sergei Lavrov, as negotiations evolve Russian Foreign Ministry with the European Union in providing residents of the Kaliningrad region the possibility of obtaining multiple Schengen visas. According to the Minister, currently the Russian side has prepared the amendments include proposals to increase the categories of persons exempted from visa fees, and the extension of issuing multiple-entry visas for up to 5 years old the first time. In addition, representatives of the European Commission proposed that the possibility of issuing multiple-entry visas free of charge to individuals who are participants in formal programs of cross-border cooperation, signed at the Russia-EU summit in Stockholm on November 18, 2009.

The Minister added, that the Russian side prepared proposals on extention of the categories of people exempt from visa fees, extention of practice of issuing multiple-entry visas with period of validity of up to 5 years. Moreover, it is proposed to envisage the possibility of issuing free multiple-entry visas to participants of official programmes of cross-border cooperation approved at the Russia-EU summit in Stockholm on November 18, 2009.

Prepared by: Kaliningrad Regional Economic Development Agency [1] based on materials of rugrad.eu [2]