Kaliningrad Oblast in the Context of EU Enlargement

The starting point of the present article is an assumption that the process of the EU eastward expansion is inevitably related with side effects on the third countries (including Russia and its integral part — the Kaliningrad oblast), and apart from significant positive implications, it likewise requires a certain price to be paid. In the light of membership of Poland and the Baltic States (predominantly Lithuania), the threat of Kaliningrad's social and economic underdevelopment and deterioration into "a double periphery" (with regard to both the EU and the Russian Federation) becomes especially relevant. The purpose of the present work is to discuss the possible impact of the Lithuanian and Polish membership in the EU on the Kaliningrad oblast, to identify the interests, positions and tools of the key actors in the region — Russia, the European Union, Poland and Lithuania — and to determine whether they are conducive to a successful resolution of the problem of Kaliningrad in the context of the EU enlargement. The resolution of the Kaliningrad problem in the context of the (future) EU enlargement is examined as a case of crisis prevention, using the definition of the concept of crisis,[...]