Alexey Ignatiev

60 years is a considerable period in the life of a concrete person. It’s time to collect stones, as they say. For economic life of 60-years’ region anniversary it is a great occasion to discuss great milestones, must-have-been dreams, realities of today and perspectives for the nearest and far future.

The favorable geographical position of Kaliningrad region with regard to the main trading partner of the Russian Federation – to the European Union – and the status of special economic zone create specific external conditions, in many respects distinct from conditions for economic activities in other Russian regions. Although the effects of the factors are not obvious and not only positive, in combination with such traditional factors of competitive advantages as relatively low cost of labour and development of the industrial and transport infrastructure, they have actually decisively influenced the formation of economic specialization of the Kaliningrad region at the present stage of development.

This year in the middle of May I was invited to participate the Baltic Sea INTERREG III B final project conference. The event took place in Sweden and the shortest way there was via Gdansk. Early in the morning I left home for Mamonovo and soon found myself at the Russian check- point. There were not so many cars from Kaliningrad in the queue, and in twenty minutes, having passed the Russian customs and border control, I, being surprised with efficiency of our bodies, made my way to the Polish border. And there was a great surprise. There were two queues of machines at the departure to the Polish side. In one queue - much longer - Poles, in another – about 40 cars - Russians. After some time, I started to realize that I can just miss my plane. The Russian queue moved extremely slowly, while the Polish queue - very fast. Only in five (!!!) hours I managed to pass the hundred-meter site that divided me from a Polish barrier.

The Russian Exclave of Kaliningrad sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania in the Southern Baltic Sea Region is a tiny part of the so-called “Baltic Community”. It has less than 1 million of population and just 15,000 sq km of territory.

Throughout the last year, the Russian and international public lively discussed the project envisaging the construction of the Northern-European Gas Pipeline (NEGP).
The debates began to acquire especially acute form, when the participants of the project – the Russian "Gazprom" and German concerns concluded the respective agreement and the project entered the stage of practical implementation.