Publications

The publication presents opinion of some Lithuanian epxerts on various aspects of Kaliningrad region's development (energy and transport infrastructure, demograhic factor etc.), as well as an assessment of the  socio-economic development programme and strategy of the Kaliningrad Region for the period of 2007-2016.

Attempting to provide a fully-fledged theory of enclaves and exclaves, A Theory of Enclaves covers a wide scope of regions and territories throughout the world and satisfies the need for a systematic view on enclaves. This book covers 282 enclaves, with a combined population total of approximately three million, but the importance of enclaves is much higher because of their specific status and issues raised for both the mainland states and the surrounding states: Gibraltar was disproportionately large for British-Spanish relations throughout the last three centuries, Kaliningrad managed to cause a major crisis in the EU-Russian relations in 2002-03, Tiny Ceuta and Melilla have caused tensions in Spanish-Moroccan relations for more than three centuries and have recently become visible as conflict points at the EU level, German Buesingen was subject to several complex international treaties between Germany and Switzerland. Rather than viewing each enclave as a unique case, or even as an anomaly, A Theory of Enclaves provides a systematic investigation of enclave-related political and economic issues. Rich on maps and illustrations, A Theory of Enclaves strives to comprise three facets of enclaves' existence: political, economic, and social life.

Modernizing municipal finance of the Kaliningrad oblast: performance-based approach and regional development. - M: MAX Press, 2007. - 192 p. ISBN 978-5-317-02003-3

Plenary Lecture at the Seminar Kaliningrad Identity – Crucial to Democracy and Development in the Baltic Sea Region Kaliningrad, 12-13 March 2007 The Russian State Immanuel Kant University, Kaliningrad in cooperation with CBEES/Sodertorn University College, Stockholm

Alexey Ignatiev, Petr Shopin

Kaliningrad’s economy has been growing in recent years, but it still has a long way to go to catch up to neighboring Poland and Lithuania in productivity terms. As a Russian exclave inside the European Union, Kaliningrad plays a key role in Russia-EU relations. Much of Kaliningrad’s economy now depends on the Special Economic Zone, whose benefits will be reduced when Russian joins the World Trade Organization. Accordingly, Kaliningrad needs to find a sustainable economic development model because simply maintaining the status quo only allows for moderate improvements.

When the Soviet Union broke up, Kaliningrad suddenly found itself separated from mainland Russia by new frontiers. Hardly any other Russian region has been hit as hard by the economic disruption as Kaliningrad. The geographical situation of the region meant that it was more highly exposed to the destabilising effects of post-communist economic transformation. Since then, a dramatic trade opening has occurred, and regional trade and production have undergone profound changes. Kaliningrad has experienced a major shift in its economic orientation towards the tertiary sector and a new industrial orientation based on its position as an intermediary in EU–Russian trade. In short, that is what this report is about: the present and future economic development of this Russian enclave during its integration into the world economy, its place in the international division of labour and in the Russian–EU economic interface.

The principal argument of the paper is the following. Russia’s policy on Kaliningrad, above all the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) regime, renders the defining impact on Kaliningrad’s regional economic development. At the same time, changes in the external environment, of which the 2004 EU Enlargement is a major instance, have only a moderate impact on Kaliningrad. In other words, economic gravity of the enclave is determined politically (through the alliance with the mainland state) rather than geographically. Despite being detached from mainland Russia, its geographical proximity to the EU is by far less important than the special economic regime and other consequences of Kaliningrad being a Russian region.