Free Republic

Six years ago, the Russian navy formed a new army corps whose job it would be to defend Kaliningrad, Russia’s geographically separate outpost on the Baltic Sea between Poland and Lithuania. This year, when the war in Ukraine began to go badly for Russia, the Kremlin yanked the 11th Army Corps from Kaliningrad and sent it into Ukraine. Where the Ukrainian army quickly destroyed it. The formation, deployment and destruction of the 11th Army Corps tell a story that’s bigger than the tragic tale of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The corps, sandwiched between two NATO countries along a strategic sea,...

Vistula Lagoon blocked for sea traffic 9.05.2006 Russian authorities stopped traffic over the Vistula Lagoon, a decision read as yet another sign of the deteriorating diplomatic situation between Poland and Russia. According to a Russian statement the Russian side will not commence border controls until a "new agreement regulating seafaring on the Vistula Lagoon" is signed. Russia's decision will hit Polish and Russian shipowners offering connections between Polish ports and Kaliningrad.

Polish leaders disappointed at not being asked to Russian anniversary Jun 28 2005, 11:18 WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Polish officials expressed disappointment on Monday that Russia didn't invite any of the country's leaders to July celebrations marking the 750th anniversary of the founding of Kaliningrad. It "is more than a mistake," Poland's President Aleksander Kwasniewski said in an interview on all-news channel TVN24. "We do not understand this." Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to take part in the anniversary celebrations in the Russian Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, a once-German city...