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Russia
copydude
Russians Go Home
by copydude
In the
last two weeks, German newspapers carried ads with the headline, ‘Comrades,
Russia Is Waiting For You‘.
On
offer to Russian expats in Germany is: an assisted resettlement package
to Kaliningrad, including subsidised bills, free train travel, free
phone installation, a chance to collect Russian and German pensions and
dual citizenship.
By far
the biggest incentive is the opportunity to buy an apartment in
Kaliningrad for just 19,999 Euro. The apartments, the ad reassures, ‘are
designed and built to traditional German technologies’
There are indeed many German buildings left in Kaliningrad from before the war.
The water mains and sewers in Kaliningrad are also traditional German technology.
In fact, burst water mains are quite common. ‘Traditional’ in Kaliningrad
largely means not maintained since the Germans left in 1945. In many city
streets, a thin layer of Russian tarmac covers the old Prussian cobblestones -
but only just.
Although there is a lot to like about
Kaliningrad, few would choose it over Germany for life-style. And
certainly not German residents. The ‘Daily Fraggle’
wrote
the other day: ‘die Stadt ein haessliches und kaputtes Dreckloch ist’.
(The town is an ugly, broken dirthole.) The writer also defied any
visitor to spend longer than 24 hours in the town.
As you can imagine, the ads were met with
scepticism and disbelief. Fingers pointed at the German Government and a
subtle form of ethnic cleansing. But the German Consul General to
Kaliningrad, Guido Herz, is denying everything. Quote:
“I would like to point out that the German
Government has never had a program to resettle Russian Germans and,
naturally, will not have any in the future.”
Should you want to jump on the scheme,
however, you will have to stump up 20% of the cost of your new apartment
as an entry fee. This led Russian agencies reporting the scheme to
headline articles with, ‘German
Style Fraud‘.
So. Scam or Schadenfreude? Who knows. It
may really be, as the advertisers hint, a scheme related to Putin’s
recent
initiative for
repopulating Russia.
KALIningrad
by
copydude
 Kaliningrad Oblast
is a
federal subject
of
Russia
(an
oblast)
on the
Baltic
coast,
with no land connection to the rest of Russia; it is a non-contiguous
exclave
of Russia surrounded by
Lithuania,
Poland
and the Baltic Sea. As Lithuania and Poland both are members of the
European Union
and
NATO,
the oblast is, as well, surrounded by territories of these organizations. It is
the westernmost part of Russia. Its largest city is
Kaliningrad
(formerly
known as Königsberg), which has historical significance as
both a major city of
Prussia
and the capital of the former
German
province
East Prussia.
Under its original
German name of
Königsberg
(help·info),
it was the capital of the
German
province of
East Prussia,
the earlier
Ducal Prussia,
and before that of the
Monastic State of the
Teutonic Knights.
Copydude
Red
Light For Amber Train
August 24th,
2006
Fresh from a game
of
blockade
with Poland, Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave is taking on Lithuania. It’s another
game of siege that’s going to end in tears.
The story so far.
Mazeikiu, the Baltics’ only refinery, is situated in Lithuania. Until recently
it was owned by Yukos and Russian receivers expected to acquire the title as a
result of Yukos’ bankruptcy.
But despite legal protests, and bids from Russia’s Lukoil, the Lithuanian
refinery was awarded to a Polish consortium. (NATO 1, Russia 0)
So then a strange thing happened. The Russian Transneft
 pipeline
that supplies the refinery suddenly sprang a leak and had to be closed for
repairs. (NATO 1, Russia 1)
Then another strange thing happened. The Lithuanian Foreign Minister said that
the ‘Amber train’ line, connecting Kaliningrad with Moscow, might have to be
closed for repairs too.
Own Goal.
Since it only prompted Transneft’s President to say that the leak was more
serious than at first thought. ‘Depending on our findings, the company will
decide to overhaul the pipeline or to build a new one. But I can not say when
that decision will be made’.
Ironically, the pipeline is called the ‘Druzhba’ - the friendship pipeline.
Now we hear from Lithuania’s Foreign Minister that he didn’t really mean it
about the train and wants
good relations with Russia. In a warm and friendly speech, he said:
‘Ask people in Kaliningrad what will happen if all our companies with all their
investments leave this market. I think many Kaliningrad residents will lose
their jobs.’
At the moment the ‘Amber Train’ is still running. All the same, would you want
to catch it?
Timetable
The
Amber train to Kaliningrad departs from Moscow at 2 p.m with a hard day’s
night ahead of every passenger.
At 2
a.m. conductors wake everyone up for a forty minute halt at Gudogai, and a
papers and baggage check at the Belarussian border.
At 3
a.m. the train arrives in Kena, Lithuania, and the same procedure is repeated
at the Lithuanian border. At 4.15 a.m. the train is due at Vilnius, and there
is a twenty-minute halt with random checks. At 6.30 a.m. there is a Lithuanian
state border again with another round of formalities, so you won’t be able to
sleep even in the morning.
At 7.45
a.m. there is one more border, this time a Russian one (Nesterov), and you’ll
undergo another forty-minute check. Finally the train arrives in Kaliningrad
at 10.45 a.m.
Russia
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