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Article: Cut off; Kaliningrad.(Kaliningrad and the EU)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- December 21, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Mother Russia looks on
Russia's separated sons feel out in the soon-to-be EU cold
COMPARED with some Russian regional capitals, the city of Kaliningrad seems to be doing quite well: it is reasonably tidy, bustling with new shops, and facing a soon-to-be-intractable traffic problem. But for anyone visiting from more prosperous neighbours like Poland or Lithuania, the contrast is jarring. And it risks becoming all the more so after those neighbours join the European Union in 2004.
Until 1991, Kaliningrad's odd location (part of former East Prussia, it was absorbed into the Soviet Union after the second world war) did not matter much. It did well ...