SIMPLIFIED PASSENGER TRANSIT VIA LITHUANIA PROCEEDS NORMALLY

MOSCOW, MARCH 9. /RIA NOVOSTI / -- Introduced on July 1, 2003, the scheme of simplified passenger transit from Kaliningrad (Russia's enclave on the Baltic) to mainland Russia and back via Lithuania "is going on normally, if not well", Russian deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Razov told journalists on Tuesday on the results of his talks with Darius Jurgeljavicius, secretary of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry.

"No questions spring up as regards the transit scheme", the sides said. And added that they will work on to make passenger transit even more comfortable. To Jurgeljavicius, "the problem is that 40 minutes have to be spent on the Belarussian-Lithuanian border and another 40 on the border with the Russian Federation".

Razov said the sides will handle problems of arranging high-speed railage on this route, as well as cargo railage. At the present time, talks on cargo transit are under way with the Russian Ministry for Economic Development and Trade.

"There is time to go until May 1 (when Lithuania together with nine East European countries officially joins the European Union), though not as much as we would like", Razov said. "Our experience of arranging passenger transit shows that we can work against time", he stressed.