Russia’s Third Capital

Kaliningrad is gradually becoming third capital – after Moscow and, of course, St. Petersburg – of the Russian Federation. On June 16, for example, it hosted a meeting of the Council of Settlers’ Association, an obscure organization but apparently influential, considering the presence on the podium of Duma Speaker Gennady Selezniov and Valentin Nikitin, chairman of the parliamentary nationalities committee. The closer the date of imposing Polish and Lithuanian visas for the residents of Kaliningrad oblast, the greater the number of high officials expected to appear in the city. This westernmost region of Russia had for decades remained neglected by the center. No Kremlin functionaries ever visited, and the need to exercise any special approach to it was overlooked. Now the situation has changed as though with the wave of a magic wand. After President Putin made it clear he would not steer a middle course with the European Union, Kaliningrad oblast turned into a nomenklatura Klondike, a place to deliver hypocritical speeches and receive prestigious posts. Russian political lobbies are buzzing with the news of Dmitry Rogozin’s appointment as special presidential representative in talks on the region, seeing this as the implementation of the Duma foreign affairs committee chairman’s ambitious dreams. Like his Senate colleague Mikhail Margelov, Mr. Rogozin has been daydreaming of the foreign minister’s post... How does it make sense that the presidential representative’s post paves the way to that of the foreign minister? After all, Mr. Rogozin’s mission is doomed from the outset, as evidenced by a memorandum of the European Commission, appearing immediately after his appointment. Visas for people living in Kaliningrad oblast, as for those living anywhere else in the Russian Federation and wishing to visit the region, will be instituted anyway; there is no way that Moscow can stop the process. Hard as Dmitry Rogozin might try to talk the Europeans into barring Lithuania EU accession, the decisions in principal have been made and the time frame of Lithuania’s admission depends exclusively on how soon it will carry out its economic task, not at all on how the Russian lawgivers feel about it. For the West, Rogozin’s appointment and the allegedly patriotic soliloquies of top Russian bureaucrats were merely a signal that Moscow did not want to come to terms and that the visas had to be enforced without it. Russia would later negotiate visa concessions, in an extremely awkward position – not so much for Moscow as for the populace of the enclave — and its delegation would be headed not by a professional orator but a career diplomat.

Be it as it may, it is still traditional in Russia to decide on careers proceeding not from deeds but from words, so it is good for officials to frequent Kaliningrad (which they have suddenly fallen in love with) and deliver impassioned speeches. So there is every reason to congratulate Dmitry Rogozin on his appointment. The only obstacle in the way to what promises to be a spectacular career are the interests of the populace, but Russian politicians have long grown accustomed to surmounting such obstacles.