Russia opens sea route to Kaliningrad to break 'blockade'
By Andrew Osborn in Moscow Tuesday 12 September 2006
Russia has broken what it regarded as an unfriendly European Union blockade of Kaliningrad by opening a sea route to connect the heavily militarised Russian enclave with "the motherland" for the first time.
A sliver of Russian territory sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania, Kaliningrad found itself marooned hundreds of miles from the Russian mainland when the two countries joined the EU in 2004.
Since then the enclave has been a source of tension between Moscow and Brussels, with Russia arguing that its access to the region is hampered by Lithuania's government, with which it enjoys frosty relations.
Russia's fears were compounded recently when Vilnius threatened to close the main rail route into Kaliningrad "for repairs" in a tit-for-tat row with Moscow over oil supplies. Moscow is therefore billing the new twice-weekly ferry service as an antidote to what has been sarcastically called a new iron or "blue" curtain (the colour of the European Union flag). From now on the Kremlin will be able to supply its most westerly region via a one-day sea route stretching across the Baltic Sea from the port of Baltiisk [sic] in the Kaliningrad region to the port of Ust-Luga in the Leningrad region, near St Petersburg. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-opens-sea-route-to-kaliningrad-to-break-blockade-415602.html
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Mapped land route between two Russian ports Baltiyst and Ust-Luga .. http://tinyurl.com/j5qa2aj .. you can imagine the water route .. :)
NATO Secretary General press conference, Defence Minister Meetings, 26 OCT 2016, 1/2
NATO Secretary General press conference, Defence Minister Meetings, 26 OCT 2016, 2/2
At 12:02 2 questions to Jens Stoltenberg (Norwegian politician) Sec. Gen. of NATO from the WSJ
1. Could you react to the Russian withdrawal of it's request to fuel at the Spanish port. Is that a positive development?
On that one apparently Spain was under pressure from allies to refuse, so the withdrawal took some heat out of the situation.
2. You repeatedly said NATO was a defensive alliance, but are you at all worried that we are in an escalatory situation where NATO is sending tanks to the eastern flank and Russia is sending ships to the Baltic Sea, Russia is reinforcing the east Mediterranean, NATO is reinforcing in the Baltic Sea. Is this a dangerous escalatory situation?
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