On Monday, the Prime Minister of Lithuania, Skvernelis, explained why his government was going to build a wall on the border with the Kaliningrad region. For protection from migrants and smugglers coming from Russia. But everyone understands that building the wall instead of cooperating with Russia is a symbol of paranoid Russophobia.
Even the European Union gave Lithuania a warning. There will be no money for this absurd project. The governor of the Kaliningrad region, Anton Alikhanov, said: "Let them build whatever they want!" He even offered to supply Lithuania with building materials for the construction of the wall. However, the wall is not an issue for Kaliningradians. Nikolai Dolgachev reports about life in this amber region of Russia.
The most unique exhibits are here. The Kaliningrad region is unofficially called the amber region. More than 90% of the world's reserves of this stone are here. Generally, it is a tree resin, but a fossilized one. This amber is over 50 million years old. It is cold in the warehouse where recently produced amber is stored. In the boxes, there are smaller stones, the large ones are kept in safe boxes. The biggest ones are stored in special baths with salt water, to preserve their marketable appearance. This is one of the rarest finds. Its weight is over two kilograms. — Can I? — Of course. It really is heavy. — What could be inside? — Anything. Insects, plants. Amber is not just a stone.
One of the largest shipyards in the country shares the same name. Giant cranes silently glide along the rails. The large landing ship, Pyotr Morgunov, will be ready soon. At a nearby shipyard, there is a civilian ship, a fishing trawler. It will be sent to the Far East. In recent years, we have achieved the effect of import substitution which we wanted to see. On our left, there is a ship, which has no foreign components. And having full import substitution today, we can have a boost in exports tomorrow.
The Kaliningrad region is a Russian island inside the European Union. This gives a competitive advantage that neighbors may not like. Lithuania announced that it would build a fence on the border. In Vilnius, people are being scared with stories about terrible Russia, but Lithuanian women visit our border towns every day. They are easily recognized by their heavy bags. They buy medicines and food. It turns out that in Russia it is neither scary nor expensive. If it was good there, then I would not come here with bags. And I do not care if this wall exists or not. The fact that near Kaliningrad we have a powerful military group is often mentioned in neighboring countries. These pictures frighten NATO generals. This is the menacing Iskander missile system. We have them here. But this is a guarantee of peace, so that no one had any temptation to revise the results of World War II.
The westernmost Russian region is also one of the youngest. The Kaliningrad region has recently turned 70 years old. And the first thing that our people built here was the Monument to the 1,200 Guardsmen in memory of those killed in the storming of Konigsberg. This is where the story of our Kaliningrad began. This region is the only territory that was passed over from Germany to the Soviet Union at the end of the war. Not far from the memorial, deep under the ground, you can find General Lasch's bunker. Here, in 1945, he surrendered the city to our troops. Here sits General Lasch. Here are our parliamentarians, who have just told him the terms of surrender. Being very worried, he squeezed the paper with the conditions in his hand. Just sitting there, thinking about what he should do.
Since then, the region's population has changed one hundred percent. People from Russia, Belarus, and other republics of the former USSR came here. It started with one cow and a calf. Farmer Alexander Mantai lives in an old house built before the war. In local villages, these are seen very often. Mantai is German. He was born in Kazakhstan, then he went to Germany, but did not like it. I was a German while living in the USSR. But when I went there, they gave me a new nationality, Russian-German. There, a person lives a sheltered life. A person there does not have a social life like he does here. Alexander has spent 10 years in the Russian exclave. He is not planning to move out of here. Another farmer also likes the warm Kaliningrad winters. It is the former mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzhkov.
The ground in the Kaliningrad region is very fertile. The climate of the Kaliningrad area is very good. This is a European climate, there are no severe frosts, and everything grows here. This is an enclave cut off from Mother Russia, and in this sense, the Kaliningrad region should, in many ways, independently produce the necessary products that are consumed by the citizens of the area. Yury Mikhailovich grows shiitake mushrooms. He has a big farm consisting of cowsheds and fields. He also has ambitious plans for the development of the territory.
But in general, this region is mostly industrial. A small factory which is unique in Russia. It makes modern wheelchairs for people with disabilities. Wheelchairs with electric motors. CEO Roman Aranin, a former pilot, for many years has not been able to stand up from a wheelchair. In this position, in which the only thing that functions is your head and for 12 years you have been typing on a computer using your voice, it is possible to run a wonderful business at the international level. Here, in Russia, in Kaliningrad, we can have a factory, that we saw near Stockholm or Dusseldorf, or even a nicer looking one. The authorities of the region are providing land for the construction of a new factory. We want Roma's example to be a driver. And we can create a cluster here. We have potential in high tech industries. And we will certainly develop it. And this is where personnel are trained.
A school of the future in the village of Bolshoye Isakovo. It attracts wunderkinds who are interested in robotics. The robot picks up this cylinder, it moves on top of it, pushes it into the robot, and then it tips it and moves it further. Artem Shumilov is 16, but he has already won several international competitions in robotics. I wanted to become a scientist for a long time. Since I was in the first or second grade. I want to combine biology and robots, and make prosthetic devices.
In Kaliningrad, young talents have resources for inspiration. The Museum of the World Ocean has the deep-submergence vehicle, Mir, which went to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean at the North Pole. Now, it is located near the Baltic coast, where the sea does not freeze, and where on the beaches you can always find a warm amber stone.
