Russia, Kaliningrad - soon!

29/12/2025
Kaliningrad's officials have to deal with the highest percentage of HIV infections in Europe and with an intimidating scale of organised crime. Large outdated industries face structural collapse, resulting in high unemployment rates. One third of Kaliningrad's one million inhabitants live below the poverty level, and the average wage is 6 to 8 times lower than those of Lithuania and Poland. https://www.iss.europa.eu/publications/alerts/future-kaliningrad 

By Jan Pešula (talk · contribs) - https://railtrips.euweb.cz/c_kal_foto23_en.html, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1468396

What is Kaliningrad?

Kaliningrad[a] (known as Königsberg[b] until 1946) is the largest city and administrative centre of Kaliningrad Oblast, an exclave of Russia between Lithuania and Poland (663 kilometres (412 mi) west of the bulk of Russia), located on the Pregolya River at the head of the Vistula Lagoon, it is the only ice-free Russian port on the Baltic Sea. Its population in 2020 was 489,359.[11] Kaliningrad is the second-largest city in the Northwestern Federal District, after Saint Petersburg and the seventh-largest city on the Baltic Sea.

Kaliningrad is a Russian exclave sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania. It was captured by Soviet troops from Nazi Germany in April 1945 and then became part of Soviet territory as a result of the Potsdam Agreement. It was renamed from the German Königsberg in 1946.

By A.Savin - Own work, FAL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60963218

More than one million inhabitants

7.4.2020 — For the first time in its 75 year-long history, the semi-exclave has exceeded one million inhabitants and continues to grow.

"In 1996, Kaliningrad was designated a Special Economic Zone, referred to as FEZ Yantar. Manufacturers based there get tax and customs duty breaks on the goods they send to other parts of Russia. Although corruption was an early deterrent, that policy means the region is now a manufacturing hub "

By A.Savin - Own work, FAL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61218584

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