Chirac Supports Putin in Visa Spat

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, July 22, 2002

Chirac Supports Putin in Visa Spat

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French President Jacques Chirac offered Russia backing Friday in its dispute with the European Union over the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, while President Vladimir Putin warned against building new walls in Europe by isolating the region.

After talks with Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Chirac said it would be "unacceptable" to require Russians to get visas "to go from one part of Russia to the other."

"There are no technical problems without a solution, and this solution should not be humiliating for Russia," Chirac said Friday at a news conference.

Putin responded, "We feel France's support and count on it.

"No one doubts that the U.S.S.R. and Russia made a decisive contribution to overcoming the schism of Europe, for example through the solution of the problem of the Berlin Wall. I don't think that the best result of that policy would be the creation of new walls in Europe," Putin said.

He added, "No one wants to ... review the results of World War II."

Kaliningrad is cut off from the rest of Russia. When its neighbors Poland and Lithuania join the EU as expected in 2004, the EU says Russians will need visas to travel overland between Kaliningrad and the rest of Russia.

Russia has strongly resisted the requirement. France has been more accommodating than other European countries on the issue.

Putin recently said he was ready for some kind of compromise on Kaliningrad, but Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov remained rigid on the issue Friday.

"Russia finds it unacceptable the demand that Russian citizens should receive a [European] visa to visit their own country," he said during a visit to Helsinki, Interfax reported.

Source: Agencies

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