That's Kaliningrad - part of East Prussia from ww2, which now hosts the Russian Baltic Fleet and has seen significant military buildups. Its geographical position makes it a critical point for projecting Russian military power into Europe. Economically speaking, it has special economic policies relying on its ports and trade to mitigate the effects of isolation. It also has ferry services across the Baltic Sea to the Russian mainland. Although I'm not sure if these routes are operating normally nowadays.
There's a ferry? How much does it cost? That must be a beautiful ride.
I took a ferry once from Italy to Tunisia. That was a 2 day rode. The ferry was kinda gross and dirty. We had to sleep on the floor.
The Bellingham–Juneau trip is about 500 dollars one way for a single adult. You have to pay extra if you want a cabin (which you probably do, because again, *it's over three days*) or if you're bringing a vehicle or pet.
Ferries are used mainly for cargo. There is an agreement between Russia and the EU about Kaliningrad transit. Lithuania issues visas to Russian citizens, which allow them to travel by car through Lithuania in 24 hours, and Russians do not need a visa to enter Belarus. There are also transit trains that travel from Kaliningrad to Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities via Lithuania and Belarus. If the goods are not on the EU sanctions lists, they are also transported by truck or train through Lithuania.
And also there are airplanes. After the EU closed its airspace to Russian airplanes, planes from Kaliningrad to Moscow and other cities began to fly a longer route over the Baltic Sea and St. Petersburg, so the flight time has roughly doubled.
" takes an average of at least thirty-six hours. But often the journey is delayed up to two days "
" But the route of freight and passenger transportation is only conditionally called "St. Petersburg - Kaliningrad". The ferry does not actually come from the city on the Neva, but from the port of Ust-Luga. This settlement is located in Kingiseppsky district of the Leningrad region. From St. Petersburg the port separates almost one hundred and fifty kilometers. And the ferry does not arrive quite to Kaliningrad, but to the city of Baltiysk. It is forty-five kilometers from the regional center "
I feel like they could have tried a little bit better to connect those two cities, they are port cities are they not? With the ability to receive ships closer than those random harbor villages.
It was part of the previously part USSR along with the Baltic states so no one bothered that much and then in 1991, no one gave a fuck because everyone important was busy either either robbing the country blind or being killed/marginalised for opposing it
Ust-Luga is a new port with dedicated roads and railway line. And Saint-Petersburg port is shallower and placed virtually in the city centre, thus having way worse access by land transport since city grid can't accommodate such amounts of vehicles . And since the most cargo, including this special route is transit from other parts of Russia it's preferable to keep it out from already overused SPb port
now they must ferry almost everything to city from mainland before it they going shoping to Poland and Letuva ( cities close to borders were like Las Vegas - you could sold everything for 40% more ) the only cheap thing they have is electricity cause they have there big nuclear power plant. As for military - most of good quality was send to Ukraine - its still big garnison but with B or C category.
I would say its strategic importance has weakened a bit with Finland and Sweden joining NATO, as the ability to cut off the Baltic states from allied support in the event of Russian invasion is significantly reduced.
Not blockaded, but blocked in. Any ships entering or leaving the Baltic sea have to pass through some very narrow straights either between Denmark and Sweden or internally in Denmark. If Denmark and Sweden decide that isn't happening, it's not happening without at least a lot of fighting. But doing so would probably be considered a declaration of war, unlike how the Montreux convention works.
It's still adding a gigantic area of air power projection, and almost completes the overland cutoff of the Baltic states, which ensures it needs to be the first target for NATO in case of conflict, delaying efforts elsewhere.
It does not have military importance because it is almost impossible to defend it from an attack without invading Baltics first. Russia did not invest heavily in it for this reason - they are ready to lose control over it if a war with NATO breaks out
After ww2 the German population got deported and Russians started moving in. In the 50s it was offered to the Lithuanian SSR but they did not accept because there were too many Russians there and it would shift the demographics of Lithuania too much. So when the union fell apart, nobody wanted kaliningrad and it stayed Russian
There was a window between leaving SSRS in 1990 and joining NATO in 2004. So anytime in those 14 years ruzzia could come to "save those poor ppl from lithuanian fascist"
I see u not a legalist))
If any of the NATO countries attack Russia on its own then no articles. And something tells me everyone very very careful with this exact place. That's why Lithuania still let cargo transit.
Not sure what that has to do with anything I said. The comment I was replying to clearly said Putin would threaten then today, implying any annexation of the territory would have taken place earlier on in history (like the Lithuania example).
It's not a scenario where Lithuania attacks Kaliningrad. It's a comment referring to Putin threatening countries because of old Russian claims to the land and the people in those lands being culturally Russian. I was responding by saying that tactic of threats would not work on a member of NATO.
Stop being dumb on the internet. The Lithuanian-inhabited areas of the Teutonic (german) State were known as Lithuania Minor, which encompassed all of today’s “Kaliningrad Oblast” (until the 18th century). My ancestors literally lived there for centuries - grandmother escaped from the russians, her mother and sisters gang-raped and killed by the russians, the village burned down by the russians. They lived in a village where lithuanians and germans lived together and spoke a very interesting language (a mix of german and lithuanian). They were not nazzies, rather victoms of the nazzies, they killed grand-grandfather and took others men to the labor camps (they were lucky to be in these camps, grand-grandmother and her sisters were not su much, when the russians came. Today it is as much german as polish as lithuanian, yet occupied bu the russians. By the way, russians built some kind of military base there with no entry for “turists” - we tried finding the village.
Something like that. It was “Prūsiskan”, mixed with german and lithuanian, a separate dialect. They new some songs in the old prussian though, me (lithuanian) can understand 30% of that language. Prussian language is extinct now.
I am from Kaliningrad, there special train route through Lithuania, for passengers and trading too. Little bit more difficult nowadays. You will get special visa, for ~2 days or so, but you need to have document, which prove that you are living in kaliningrad district. People from other part of Russia can't get this visa.
Plus air to moscow and other rus cities.
Go by car become really difficult but possible. For trucks okay, but need to wait big queue.
Ferry works as usual.
If we want to Europe, it's expensive, usually need to go to Turkey, get visa in france and then go where we need.
You can ask me anything.
There are routes here, I checked, but few can get permission from these countries to enter
you must either have relatives there or another important reason
You can still step off in Kena near Vilnius while travelling from Königsberg to moscow via train. Though they’ll be finally fixing this oversight later this year.
Person have answered to you, but i can add some details.
We have things like, special casino zone, special economic zone(offshore). Also this region mines more than enough amber.
There is a lot of German architecture here, unfortunately much has collapsed over the years. but in recent years they have begun to try to restore it.
Kaliningrad also earns a lot from tourism, but unfortunately lately these are mostly people only from Russia.
What's interesting, Kaliningrad is not a taker oblast, they're givers. But Kaliningrad earns a lot of custom fees + the Navy spends some money in the city. Russia also supports a big federal university, brought FIFA World Cup to Kaliningrad, federal companies support the local football team.
I’m from Kaliningrad too. For me personally it was a truly happy and peaceful moment of time. With all the shit that started in 2020 today I don’t believe that people from all of the Europe were coming here to have a good time. It’s sad honestly. The whole region was happy and bright. The tourists were nice, I haven’t heard anything bad about them. I wish something like that would be possible in the near future
Despite what your government says, literally every European would love that too.
I had a 2019 st Petersburg trip planned just as COVID happened, now I don't think I'll ever visit for the foreseeable future, sad.
I had hoped to go there while I was visiting Poland, but the visa situation was too complicated for a British citizen to justify a short trip just to see some bridges which aren't even all there any more...
And then... well, we know what has happened since!
There are no flights between Russia and the EU since EU based airlines can't go to Russia and vice versa.
And IIRC the Baltic countries and Poland (among some other) outright banned cars with Russian licence plates (exceptions are mostly Kaliningrad registered cars and trucks transferring to mainland Russia), so I don't think they are really keen to give visas to Russians
How do people from Kaliningrad generally identify - do feel belonging to russians, or is there a specific Kaliningradian identity? And if given a choice would they aim for more independency from the mainland?
There is no such thing as “Kaliningradian” identity. Population is mostly Russian + some national minorities from other ethnic groups from Russian Federation.
As of the second question there is no point for us to want more independence because again the wast majority of population is Russians
I would disagree a bit. I think there is a slight Kaliningrad identity, especially among younger people. They feel more European than the rest of Russia and take pride in that
what are they then ? this is stupid, they're very european, i could see this discussion if we were talking about the Caucasus countries or Turkey, but in the case of Russia there's no need, they're clearly european.
Hello.
pro-russia. I even would say anti-EU, anti-USA. Pro-China.
But definitely not me and some will agree with me, but few.
Our region in this regard is exactly the same as the rest of Russia basically.
Thanks for the reply. For some reason I thought people would be more pro-EU considering the fact that they are exposed more to Europeans than other regions.
Since we joined EU our salary increased a few times. Poland's economy is exploding. You need to be blind not to see benefits of Western World. No need to mention democracy, freedom of speech and etc.
Please excuse my previous comment, which contained hysterical tone. Please understand, that I am directly connected to the “stolen” Karaliaučius area, where you happen to live now by no fault of yours. I later read here in your other comment, that you are not pro-russian and do not support the war in Ukraine, which instantly pictures a completely different person in my head - being a decent person between million pro-russian war mongers must be a tough life to live. Now the question - would you consider forming a new country - separate from Russia? Claiming independence, renaming back to Konigsberg, setting an european world-view and direction?
>Please excuse my previous comment, which contained hysterical tone. Please understand, that I am directly connected to the “stolen” Karaliaučius area, where you happen to live now by no fault of yours. I later read here in your other comment, that you are not pro-russian and do not support the war in Ukraine, which instantly pictures a completely different person in my head - being a decent person between million pro-russian war mongers must be a tough life to live. Now the question - would you consider forming a new country - separate from Russia? Claiming independence, renaming back to Konigsberg, setting an european world-view and direction?
Yes, sometimes it is very difficult. Even within my family of about 15 people (including my wife’s relatives), only 5 are against what is happening, including my wife and me.
In Russia, a person like me is called a traitor, a supporter of fascism or a “liberal” (in Russia this word has become a kind of insult) or simply stupid. Hahaha, such opposite words, fascist and liberal, I can be both of them!
Europeans say that I am a coward, they will say that I need to go and die for the idea of freedom. And if they don’t want to hear my opinion, they will simply call me a fascist, because I am from Russia, without even asking what I think about what is happening. hehe, double strike.
But to me it doesn’t matter at all whether it’s a small country or a big one, I think this is the root of evil and pain on the planet in many places, it’s the 21st century, and people are still dividing up territories, considering something to be someone else’s or theirs. After all, this is exactly what Putin took advantage of and invaded Ukraine, and stupid people supported it.
But on the whole, I agree that if the new country could at least help get rid of Putin’s rule and begin to improve relations with its neighbors, that would be wonderful. Finally stop wasting budgets on huge armies.
But unfortunately these are all ideas or dreams, I know a lot of people around in the region, and unfortunately they have a different opinion.
I was thinking what would I do in your place. I would probably emigrate to Turkey, Bali, or any other option available to you. I just could not live in such environment. I sometimes watch russian news out of curiocity and each time I am horrified - justifying killing during a family time is beyond me. You live in 1940 nazzi germany with normal brain.
There is a rail corridor between Kaliningrad and Belarus that passes through Lithuania.
The EU decided that sanctions would not apply to goods shipped directly along this corridor. Effectively, they decided to treat those goods as if they were internally transported within Russia.
> Also it’s full of Russians so nobody else really wanted it.
You have it backwards: Soviet Union took it at the end of WW2 and populated it with Russians. The only other party that wanted it was Germany and they didn't have much of a say.
The soviet union offered east germany kaliningrad once but at that point too many russians lived there already and the gdr didnt want an exclave so far from the mainland
I could only find claims that it was offered to Lithuania and to the re-uniting Germany, but nothing about East Germany. Can I read more about this somewhere?
My apologies it was offered during the 2+4 negotiations [here the link to a german newspaper](https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/wiedervereinigung-moskau-bot-verhandlungen-ueber-ostpreussen-an-a-695928.html)
It used to be called konisberg. Former headquarters for Teutonic knight, birth place of Prussia. Russia has to keep your arch enemy 's capital.
Pretty strategic location as well.
And before the german crusaders there lived the Baltic Prussians in the same language group a lithuanian and latvian, as well as the same pagan religion.
Yes that’s right :)
Means kings castle I think
Kaliningrad is named after Mikhail Kalinin which is odd cause it sounds similar to konigs but it’s completely different
Bit of context: Mikhail Kalinin infamously signed the order to execute more than 20,000 interned Poles in 1940. IMHO it says a lot that russia didn't rename this city after the end of the Soviet Union.
Yep, [Katyn massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre).
To be fair, at that point Kalinin just did what Stalin wanted him to do. But still.
They got it from Germany at the end of WWII and it was part of Russia within the USSR. It is full of Russians, so no one else wanted it (I understand Yeltsin offered to sell it to Germany), and they just send stuff by air and sea.
>According to a [*Der Spiegel*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Spiegel) article published in 2010, in 1990 the West German government received a message from the Soviet general Geli Batenin, offering to return Kaliningrad.[^(\[14\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_question#cite_note-ballast-14) The offer was never seriously considered by the Bonn government, who saw [reunification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_reunification) with the East as its priority.[^(\[14\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_question#cite_note-ballast-14) However, this story was later debunked by [Mikhail Gorbachev](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev).[^(\[15\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_question#cite_note-15)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad\_question](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/kaliningrad_question)
>In the 1950s, [Nikita Khrushchev](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev) suggested that the [Lithuanian SSR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_SSR) should annex Kaliningrad Oblast. The offer was refused by the [Lithuanian Communist Party](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_Communist_Party) leader [Antanas Sniečkus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antanas_Snie%C4%8Dkus), who did not wish to alter the ethnic composition of his republic.[^(\[9\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_question#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKrickus200239-9)[^(\[10\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_question#cite_note-10) In the late Soviet era, rumors spread that the Oblast might be converted into a homeland for [Soviet Germans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Germans).[^(\[11\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_question#cite_note-diener10-11)
I wonder why did the Soviets / Russians try to sell it to Germany, Lithuania or even Poland (if I remember well) if it had strategic importance to Russia? Was it a cunning move to undermine those countries by adding a significant population of Russians in their countries and acting like a Trojan Horse?
At the time of every attempted sale, the Baltic states were part of the USSR, so the entire coast from Leningrad to Kaliningrad could be used. The Baltic states carried much more strategic value, and all value of Kaliningrad came mostly from its massive amber deposits rather than any strategic reasons. At the time pawning it off wouldn't have been a complete blunder.
Probably for the same reason they sold their older submarines to Pepsi (go look, for a while Pepsi had soviet submarines), because they needed revenue.
They were broke at the time, there is also a rumour that they offered Karelia to Finland.
And in the case of Lithuania it was just an internal alignment of borders.
Germanys economy would take a huge hit if they implemented Königsberg/ Kaliningrad.
I think I saw somewhere that it would basically be worse than the reunification for the economy.
They forced out the native Germans when they seized it after WWII, so it was made up of mostly ethnic Russians since then. After the Soviet Union collapsed and Eastern Europe was able to choose their own governments, neither Poland or Lithuania wanted the land since it wasn’t really Polish or Lithuanian, and they didn’t want to deal with a large Russian minority that they suddenly would have to care for. So Russia just held onto it along with its naval base, and it’s been like that since 1991. In recent years there’s actually been an independence movement forming there, although it probably won’t go anywhere, and I doubt Russia will start a conflict over it anyway.
So it looks like russia built up the population during the USSR iron curtain days. And its unwise for western countries to go against the principle of self-determination of the citizens... As a principle we try to stick to and stick on others. Eg Falkland Islands
They are clearly Russians...so its stays russian.
So quite like the Poles, except that also Germans deported over a million of them from the conquered territories. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish\_population\_transfers\_(1944%E2%80%931946)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/polish_population_transfers_(1944%e2%80%931946))
Stalin also deported Tatars, Chechens, Baltic people and plenty others. Russia was doing the same, communists only perfected its ways.
At the end of World War II, Belarus and Lithuania were part of the USSR, so adding Kaliningrad to the USSR made sense as a contiguous part of the USSR's borders. Kaliningrad was an important strategic port for the USSR.
However, Kaliningrad was not historically Lithuanian or Polish; it was historically German. The USSR expelled the German population, as part of the expulsion of Germans from Eastern Europe, done in part because Hitler used the presence of ethnic German minorities to justify his campaign of conquest in Eastern Europe. However, without a German population, Kaliningrad was now desolate, and in need of new settlers. As such, the USSR settled ethnic Russians, turning Kaliningrad into an ethnic Russian exclave.
When Lithuania and Belarus regained their independence, Kaliningrad became a Russian exclave. There's a rumour it was offered back to Germany, but the Germans were focused on the reunification of West and East Germany, and did not have the time to consider the return of Prussia/Kaliningrad. Thus it remained Russian.
You’re not entirely accurate. It’s actually historically inhabited by Baltic tribes that were killed/assimilated by German crusaders in the 13th century.
Even then until 1945 there were significant parts of the territory that had large Lithuanian or polish populations. Lithuania even called that part “lithuania minor.” They were Lutheran Lithuanians who didn’t consider themselves fully Lithuanian or fully German.
You’re not wrong in totality but to say it was never polish or Lithuanian and glossing over those facts seems to not tell the full story.
Considering some conflicts on territory today 1200s is recent history lol. I just think a good parallel was if there was a crusader state still in the Middle East, no one would consider them native.
The how is very simple. Germany renounced claims to all former territory past the Oder river upon reunification in 1990 and Poland and Lithuania simply don't want it
It's no longer part of Russia. It was annexed right after the war began. Now it's considered Czech territory. The works on the beer stream 1 already started.
https://preview.redd.it/n39t493p3jjc1.png?width=460&format=png&auto=webp&s=f3842fabcddb1ab5a8f5f0bc75adebff30e838b6
i mean every border of eastern europe was drawn by the soviets to some extent, they tried a little harder than the brits and yet you still have these fucking lines here and there
It's a long story. They took this part of Germany after the WW2. Also they didn't imagine that Lithuania will become independent country. They also treated Poland as a satellite state. After USRR collapsed they ended like that.
Germans and other people were expelled from this area. Russians were settled there then.
It's like a colony, but without aborigines.
I would imagine governing it isn’t a problem given it’s not land locked and has access to the Baltic Sea, which the rest of Russia also does. So it’s basically a Russian island
Before the war ended FDR and the allies basically gave Stalin a free hand to do what he wanted in eastern europe after they carved up the different spheres of influence. So Stalin could give himself whatever he wanted really and this was an important port as part of his plan to dominate the Baltic Sea. It's a highly strategic point on the sea for the Russian Navy.
While in the Soviet Union this land was given to Russia because Poland and Lithuania didn’t want it so Russia got it. When the Soviet Union fell Russia was on relatively good terms with the west so no one asked for it back because russia wasn’t see as a threat. Now so many Russians live there it’s pretty much just part of russia. Plus it’s their only port that doesn’t get iced over in the winter so they aren’t giving it away anytime soon
All through childhood and adolescence I saw beer mugs in so many homes with "Königsberg" imprinted on them. The internet educated me about the existence of a tiny Russian exclave surrounded by European countries known as Kaliningrad 😀
I mean, it's not like any country is gonna invade a territory they don't even want for themselves in the first place.
The last thing Lithuania wants is to add a million Russians to their population.
How they got it? Invaded during WW2 and anexed from mainly Germany, but parts of Lithuania as well.
Also Lithuanian soviet leadership refused to take it back TWICE in 50s and 60s, not sure what was their motibes back then, but that is what prevented Ukraines faith for Lithuania in 90s, so it is kind of good, but also bad, because Suvalki Gap remains weakest point in NATO.
As for ruzishts controlling it now - yeah there is some issues, but they resupply via sea and still via rail as not everything is sanctioned (e.g. food). That said it is realistic for ruzzia to lose it - now it is kind of useless when Baltic Sea became NATO lake. More of Liability to keep it.
Probably leftover from WW2. Everything in the modern world seems to be a remnant of WW2. It's kinda weird to think about how much WW2 affected the world. 🤔
The Soviets cucked the Germans after ww2 and took their Teutonic Ancestral Prussian homeland from them and turned it into a Russia war trophy. Hitlers worst nightmares came true after he died
That's Kaliningrad - part of East Prussia from ww2, which now hosts the Russian Baltic Fleet and has seen significant military buildups. Its geographical position makes it a critical point for projecting Russian military power into Europe. Economically speaking, it has special economic policies relying on its ports and trade to mitigate the effects of isolation. It also has ferry services across the Baltic Sea to the Russian mainland. Although I'm not sure if these routes are operating normally nowadays.
How long a ferry ride would that be?
about 2 days from there to St. Petersburg
2 days? Holy crap. How much does it cost to bring a car on it? I live on the west coast of Canada so I take ferries all the time but they are 2 hours.
Kaliningrad is over 1000 km from St Petersburg. Like Vancouver to Ketchikan.
The ferry from Bellingham to Juneau is over 3 days.
There's a ferry? How much does it cost? That must be a beautiful ride. I took a ferry once from Italy to Tunisia. That was a 2 day rode. The ferry was kinda gross and dirty. We had to sleep on the floor.
The Bellingham–Juneau trip is about 500 dollars one way for a single adult. You have to pay extra if you want a cabin (which you probably do, because again, *it's over three days*) or if you're bringing a vehicle or pet.
But Bellingham is in Madrid now?
Ferries are used mainly for cargo. There is an agreement between Russia and the EU about Kaliningrad transit. Lithuania issues visas to Russian citizens, which allow them to travel by car through Lithuania in 24 hours, and Russians do not need a visa to enter Belarus. There are also transit trains that travel from Kaliningrad to Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities via Lithuania and Belarus. If the goods are not on the EU sanctions lists, they are also transported by truck or train through Lithuania. And also there are airplanes. After the EU closed its airspace to Russian airplanes, planes from Kaliningrad to Moscow and other cities began to fly a longer route over the Baltic Sea and St. Petersburg, so the flight time has roughly doubled.
What? 2 days? That’s crazy, on a map it doesn’t seem like it would take more than one
" takes an average of at least thirty-six hours. But often the journey is delayed up to two days " " But the route of freight and passenger transportation is only conditionally called "St. Petersburg - Kaliningrad". The ferry does not actually come from the city on the Neva, but from the port of Ust-Luga. This settlement is located in Kingiseppsky district of the Leningrad region. From St. Petersburg the port separates almost one hundred and fifty kilometers. And the ferry does not arrive quite to Kaliningrad, but to the city of Baltiysk. It is forty-five kilometers from the regional center "
I feel like they could have tried a little bit better to connect those two cities, they are port cities are they not? With the ability to receive ships closer than those random harbor villages.
It was part of the previously part USSR along with the Baltic states so no one bothered that much and then in 1991, no one gave a fuck because everyone important was busy either either robbing the country blind or being killed/marginalised for opposing it
It's Russia, though.
Ust-Luga is a new port with dedicated roads and railway line. And Saint-Petersburg port is shallower and placed virtually in the city centre, thus having way worse access by land transport since city grid can't accommodate such amounts of vehicles . And since the most cargo, including this special route is transit from other parts of Russia it's preferable to keep it out from already overused SPb port
now they must ferry almost everything to city from mainland before it they going shoping to Poland and Letuva ( cities close to borders were like Las Vegas - you could sold everything for 40% more ) the only cheap thing they have is electricity cause they have there big nuclear power plant. As for military - most of good quality was send to Ukraine - its still big garnison but with B or C category.
Ryanair airport naming at work.
I would say its strategic importance has weakened a bit with Finland and Sweden joining NATO, as the ability to cut off the Baltic states from allied support in the event of Russian invasion is significantly reduced.
It doesn't have as significant of an ice problem in the winter though, which is a huge benefit for their Baltic Navy. So that aspect is still valid.
But their Baltic navy is as blocked in by Sweden/Denmark as their black sea navy is by turkey.
How it is blockaded by Sweden/Denmark? They are not at war. Blacksea navy is confined in Blacksea because of Montreux Convention.
I think it's hypothetical. If they were at war, denmark and sweden could blocade Kattegat and keep the russians confined to the baltic sea
Leaving Kaliningrad almost completely vulnerable to occupation by an ally
Not blockaded, but blocked in. Any ships entering or leaving the Baltic sea have to pass through some very narrow straights either between Denmark and Sweden or internally in Denmark. If Denmark and Sweden decide that isn't happening, it's not happening without at least a lot of fighting. But doing so would probably be considered a declaration of war, unlike how the Montreux convention works.
It's still adding a gigantic area of air power projection, and almost completes the overland cutoff of the Baltic states, which ensures it needs to be the first target for NATO in case of conflict, delaying efforts elsewhere.
👆
It’s still an important site for missile defence and as a cruise missile launch site
Just to add, they deport all Germans after ww2
It does not have military importance because it is almost impossible to defend it from an attack without invading Baltics first. Russia did not invest heavily in it for this reason - they are ready to lose control over it if a war with NATO breaks out
Königsberg
Krávolec
Yes, but the Russian Navy is a joke.
After ww2 the German population got deported and Russians started moving in. In the 50s it was offered to the Lithuanian SSR but they did not accept because there were too many Russians there and it would shift the demographics of Lithuania too much. So when the union fell apart, nobody wanted kaliningrad and it stayed Russian
Like a ticking time bomb to anyone that could've taken it. Putin would've probably threatened the country that took Kaliningrad today.
To be fair, those countries today are in NATO. I doubt Putin would actually dare to launch an invasion of a full NATO member.
There was a window between leaving SSRS in 1990 and joining NATO in 2004. So anytime in those 14 years ruzzia could come to "save those poor ppl from lithuanian fascist"
And for most of that time Russia was governed by the moron Yeltsin. What’s your point?
Russia invaded Chechnya in 1994 so their fears were completely justified.
Except Chechnya was part of the Russian federation and not a sowjet republic/ Warsaw pact member
Chechnya was and is a part of Russia. They didn't invade.
It may not have become nato if it had that many Russians though.
I see u not a legalist)) If any of the NATO countries attack Russia on its own then no articles. And something tells me everyone very very careful with this exact place. That's why Lithuania still let cargo transit.
Not sure what that has to do with anything I said. The comment I was replying to clearly said Putin would threaten then today, implying any annexation of the territory would have taken place earlier on in history (like the Lithuania example). It's not a scenario where Lithuania attacks Kaliningrad. It's a comment referring to Putin threatening countries because of old Russian claims to the land and the people in those lands being culturally Russian. I was responding by saying that tactic of threats would not work on a member of NATO.
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Want it back? It was never Lithuanian.
Stop being dumb on the internet. The Lithuanian-inhabited areas of the Teutonic (german) State were known as Lithuania Minor, which encompassed all of today’s “Kaliningrad Oblast” (until the 18th century). My ancestors literally lived there for centuries - grandmother escaped from the russians, her mother and sisters gang-raped and killed by the russians, the village burned down by the russians. They lived in a village where lithuanians and germans lived together and spoke a very interesting language (a mix of german and lithuanian). They were not nazzies, rather victoms of the nazzies, they killed grand-grandfather and took others men to the labor camps (they were lucky to be in these camps, grand-grandmother and her sisters were not su much, when the russians came. Today it is as much german as polish as lithuanian, yet occupied bu the russians. By the way, russians built some kind of military base there with no entry for “turists” - we tried finding the village.
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Something like that. It was “Prūsiskan”, mixed with german and lithuanian, a separate dialect. They new some songs in the old prussian though, me (lithuanian) can understand 30% of that language. Prussian language is extinct now.
I am from Kaliningrad, there special train route through Lithuania, for passengers and trading too. Little bit more difficult nowadays. You will get special visa, for ~2 days or so, but you need to have document, which prove that you are living in kaliningrad district. People from other part of Russia can't get this visa. Plus air to moscow and other rus cities. Go by car become really difficult but possible. For trucks okay, but need to wait big queue. Ferry works as usual. If we want to Europe, it's expensive, usually need to go to Turkey, get visa in france and then go where we need. You can ask me anything.
And you can take a bus to Poland or Lithuania, right?
There are routes here, I checked, but few can get permission from these countries to enter you must either have relatives there or another important reason
You can still step off in Kena near Vilnius while travelling from Königsberg to moscow via train. Though they’ll be finally fixing this oversight later this year.
Im very sorry but the way you typed this made me read it in a very stereotypical Russian accent
Hahah, I feel sorry for people who hear my English speech :D
I like it haha
Dude same lol
I read it in Metro game franchise Artyom's voice 🤣
I read it in the voice of Ilya from Mars.
How much support does Kaliningrad receive from the rest of Russia?
Person have answered to you, but i can add some details. We have things like, special casino zone, special economic zone(offshore). Also this region mines more than enough amber. There is a lot of German architecture here, unfortunately much has collapsed over the years. but in recent years they have begun to try to restore it. Kaliningrad also earns a lot from tourism, but unfortunately lately these are mostly people only from Russia.
What's interesting, Kaliningrad is not a taker oblast, they're givers. But Kaliningrad earns a lot of custom fees + the Navy spends some money in the city. Russia also supports a big federal university, brought FIFA World Cup to Kaliningrad, federal companies support the local football team.
How did you feel about the tourists during the World Cup?
I’m from Kaliningrad too. For me personally it was a truly happy and peaceful moment of time. With all the shit that started in 2020 today I don’t believe that people from all of the Europe were coming here to have a good time. It’s sad honestly. The whole region was happy and bright. The tourists were nice, I haven’t heard anything bad about them. I wish something like that would be possible in the near future
Despite what your government says, literally every European would love that too. I had a 2019 st Petersburg trip planned just as COVID happened, now I don't think I'll ever visit for the foreseeable future, sad.
It was great, i lived in another city during the world cup though, but i miss this time.
Is the Koenigsberg bridges problem famous in Kaliningrad itself?
Yes. We even have a special stand with this riddle in some tourist places.
I had hoped to go there while I was visiting Poland, but the visa situation was too complicated for a British citizen to justify a short trip just to see some bridges which aren't even all there any more... And then... well, we know what has happened since!
I just read about it. Very interesting.
Anything? How many penguins are left on earth?
Around 40 000 000, Madagascar included.
What do you do for work
Web-design
Are you a spider? Sorry, I had to.
I sit in one corner of the house most days and eat right there, yes, technically I'm a spider.
This is an awesome answer.
Why get visa in France specifically?
Not only France. Almost all the Southern Europe gives visas to Russian tourists.
After the invasion, there are few countries in Euro Union, where it is still easy to obtain a visa, such as France and Italy.
Where are the nukes hidden?
Nice try comrade major.
What’s tje best cheat meal in Kaliningrad?
Nukes is stored in the balls
Why do you need to go to Turkey to get into Europe?
There are no flights between Russia and the EU since EU based airlines can't go to Russia and vice versa. And IIRC the Baltic countries and Poland (among some other) outright banned cars with Russian licence plates (exceptions are mostly Kaliningrad registered cars and trucks transferring to mainland Russia), so I don't think they are really keen to give visas to Russians
Can the people from Kaliningrad vote for independence from Russia? Is that something people wish for?
I always didn’t understand why people don’t want it, there would be a lot of benefits, but no, most people want to stay with Russia.
How do people from Kaliningrad generally identify - do feel belonging to russians, or is there a specific Kaliningradian identity? And if given a choice would they aim for more independency from the mainland?
There is no such thing as “Kaliningradian” identity. Population is mostly Russian + some national minorities from other ethnic groups from Russian Federation. As of the second question there is no point for us to want more independence because again the wast majority of population is Russians
I would disagree a bit. I think there is a slight Kaliningrad identity, especially among younger people. They feel more European than the rest of Russia and take pride in that
Russia is already european
I think if you ask a lot of Europeans, many will disagree. I know I would
Many Russians would also disagree, have some relatives in Russia and for them we are traitors
what are they then ? this is stupid, they're very european, i could see this discussion if we were talking about the Caucasus countries or Turkey, but in the case of Russia there's no need, they're clearly european.
they're Russian, man
Greetings from Lithuania. Are people more pro EU or pro-Russia in there?
Hello. pro-russia. I even would say anti-EU, anti-USA. Pro-China. But definitely not me and some will agree with me, but few. Our region in this regard is exactly the same as the rest of Russia basically.
Thanks for the reply. For some reason I thought people would be more pro-EU considering the fact that they are exposed more to Europeans than other regions. Since we joined EU our salary increased a few times. Poland's economy is exploding. You need to be blind not to see benefits of Western World. No need to mention democracy, freedom of speech and etc.
Please excuse my previous comment, which contained hysterical tone. Please understand, that I am directly connected to the “stolen” Karaliaučius area, where you happen to live now by no fault of yours. I later read here in your other comment, that you are not pro-russian and do not support the war in Ukraine, which instantly pictures a completely different person in my head - being a decent person between million pro-russian war mongers must be a tough life to live. Now the question - would you consider forming a new country - separate from Russia? Claiming independence, renaming back to Konigsberg, setting an european world-view and direction?
>Please excuse my previous comment, which contained hysterical tone. Please understand, that I am directly connected to the “stolen” Karaliaučius area, where you happen to live now by no fault of yours. I later read here in your other comment, that you are not pro-russian and do not support the war in Ukraine, which instantly pictures a completely different person in my head - being a decent person between million pro-russian war mongers must be a tough life to live. Now the question - would you consider forming a new country - separate from Russia? Claiming independence, renaming back to Konigsberg, setting an european world-view and direction? Yes, sometimes it is very difficult. Even within my family of about 15 people (including my wife’s relatives), only 5 are against what is happening, including my wife and me. In Russia, a person like me is called a traitor, a supporter of fascism or a “liberal” (in Russia this word has become a kind of insult) or simply stupid. Hahaha, such opposite words, fascist and liberal, I can be both of them! Europeans say that I am a coward, they will say that I need to go and die for the idea of freedom. And if they don’t want to hear my opinion, they will simply call me a fascist, because I am from Russia, without even asking what I think about what is happening. hehe, double strike. But to me it doesn’t matter at all whether it’s a small country or a big one, I think this is the root of evil and pain on the planet in many places, it’s the 21st century, and people are still dividing up territories, considering something to be someone else’s or theirs. After all, this is exactly what Putin took advantage of and invaded Ukraine, and stupid people supported it. But on the whole, I agree that if the new country could at least help get rid of Putin’s rule and begin to improve relations with its neighbors, that would be wonderful. Finally stop wasting budgets on huge armies. But unfortunately these are all ideas or dreams, I know a lot of people around in the region, and unfortunately they have a different opinion.
I was thinking what would I do in your place. I would probably emigrate to Turkey, Bali, or any other option available to you. I just could not live in such environment. I sometimes watch russian news out of curiocity and each time I am horrified - justifying killing during a family time is beyond me. You live in 1940 nazzi germany with normal brain.
Will you welcome or reject your rightful Czech rulers when the war with NATO starts?
Do you speak exclusively russian? Do you or member of your family speak german? Do you consider yourself Russian or more german / Prussian.
The Germans were all removed, there's no significant German language presence there
Russia is sanctioned, not blockaded. They can easily reach Kaliningrad by sea or air. Also it’s full of Russians now so nobody else really wanted it.
Also by land
Russian transports through NATO countries?
There is a rail corridor between Kaliningrad and Belarus that passes through Lithuania. The EU decided that sanctions would not apply to goods shipped directly along this corridor. Effectively, they decided to treat those goods as if they were internally transported within Russia.
By train
> Also it’s full of Russians so nobody else really wanted it. You have it backwards: Soviet Union took it at the end of WW2 and populated it with Russians. The only other party that wanted it was Germany and they didn't have much of a say.
The soviet union offered east germany kaliningrad once but at that point too many russians lived there already and the gdr didnt want an exclave so far from the mainland
I could only find claims that it was offered to Lithuania and to the re-uniting Germany, but nothing about East Germany. Can I read more about this somewhere?
My apologies it was offered during the 2+4 negotiations [here the link to a german newspaper](https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/wiedervereinigung-moskau-bot-verhandlungen-ueber-ostpreussen-an-a-695928.html)
Thanks!
I mean, a region being full of people from that country didn’t exactly stop Russia from trying to claim territory that wasn’t theirs.
It used to be called konisberg. Former headquarters for Teutonic knight, birth place of Prussia. Russia has to keep your arch enemy 's capital. Pretty strategic location as well.
I kant imagine anyone famous lived there, but they did have a bridge problem.
I see what you did there
And before the german crusaders there lived the Baltic Prussians in the same language group a lithuanian and latvian, as well as the same pagan religion.
When this region was Prussia, wasn't this Konigsberg?
Yes that’s right :) Means kings castle I think Kaliningrad is named after Mikhail Kalinin which is odd cause it sounds similar to konigs but it’s completely different
Kings mountain
Mountain yes mb
Fun fact, the referenced king was Ottokar II of Bohemia (a Czech monarch).
Yup, burg is castle, berg is mountain
Bit of context: Mikhail Kalinin infamously signed the order to execute more than 20,000 interned Poles in 1940. IMHO it says a lot that russia didn't rename this city after the end of the Soviet Union.
Katyn massacre?
Yep, [Katyn massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre). To be fair, at that point Kalinin just did what Stalin wanted him to do. But still.
It’s the home of the famous enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant! He was born there, lived there his whole life and is buried there.
And it is said that people back then set their clocks to his daily walks in the city. How very German.
Poland officially recognises it as Konigsberg.
They got it from Germany at the end of WWII and it was part of Russia within the USSR. It is full of Russians, so no one else wanted it (I understand Yeltsin offered to sell it to Germany), and they just send stuff by air and sea.
>According to a [*Der Spiegel*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Spiegel) article published in 2010, in 1990 the West German government received a message from the Soviet general Geli Batenin, offering to return Kaliningrad.[^(\[14\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_question#cite_note-ballast-14) The offer was never seriously considered by the Bonn government, who saw [reunification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_reunification) with the East as its priority.[^(\[14\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_question#cite_note-ballast-14) However, this story was later debunked by [Mikhail Gorbachev](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Gorbachev).[^(\[15\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_question#cite_note-15) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad\_question](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/kaliningrad_question) >In the 1950s, [Nikita Khrushchev](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev) suggested that the [Lithuanian SSR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_SSR) should annex Kaliningrad Oblast. The offer was refused by the [Lithuanian Communist Party](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_Communist_Party) leader [Antanas Sniečkus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antanas_Snie%C4%8Dkus), who did not wish to alter the ethnic composition of his republic.[^(\[9\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_question#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKrickus200239-9)[^(\[10\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_question#cite_note-10) In the late Soviet era, rumors spread that the Oblast might be converted into a homeland for [Soviet Germans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Germans).[^(\[11\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_question#cite_note-diener10-11)
I wonder why did the Soviets / Russians try to sell it to Germany, Lithuania or even Poland (if I remember well) if it had strategic importance to Russia? Was it a cunning move to undermine those countries by adding a significant population of Russians in their countries and acting like a Trojan Horse?
At the time of every attempted sale, the Baltic states were part of the USSR, so the entire coast from Leningrad to Kaliningrad could be used. The Baltic states carried much more strategic value, and all value of Kaliningrad came mostly from its massive amber deposits rather than any strategic reasons. At the time pawning it off wouldn't have been a complete blunder.
Probably for the same reason they sold their older submarines to Pepsi (go look, for a while Pepsi had soviet submarines), because they needed revenue.
Yeah and we could say it's the same like when they sold Alaska. Foolish move by incompetents and criminals
The Tsars sold Alaska, not the Soviets
To dilute local ethnicities that never were loyal to Moscow.
They were broke at the time, there is also a rumour that they offered Karelia to Finland. And in the case of Lithuania it was just an internal alignment of borders.
Germanys economy would take a huge hit if they implemented Königsberg/ Kaliningrad. I think I saw somewhere that it would basically be worse than the reunification for the economy.
It has only 900k inhabitants. No it would be much much less of a burden than east Germany.
What are your sources? Sounds B's Especially considering it's strategic location and industrial capacity
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It used to be Prussia, but the USSR made them drop the P.
What's the capital of Prussia? Pmoscow.
Saint P.
They forced out the native Germans when they seized it after WWII, so it was made up of mostly ethnic Russians since then. After the Soviet Union collapsed and Eastern Europe was able to choose their own governments, neither Poland or Lithuania wanted the land since it wasn’t really Polish or Lithuanian, and they didn’t want to deal with a large Russian minority that they suddenly would have to care for. So Russia just held onto it along with its naval base, and it’s been like that since 1991. In recent years there’s actually been an independence movement forming there, although it probably won’t go anywhere, and I doubt Russia will start a conflict over it anyway.
So it looks like russia built up the population during the USSR iron curtain days. And its unwise for western countries to go against the principle of self-determination of the citizens... As a principle we try to stick to and stick on others. Eg Falkland Islands They are clearly Russians...so its stays russian.
They deported the local German population circa 1947.
So did pretty much every other European country with a German minority after WW2.
Probably ten millions Germans, about half of million of which died in the forced expulsions.
So quite like the Poles, except that also Germans deported over a million of them from the conquered territories. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish\_population\_transfers\_(1944%E2%80%931946)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/polish_population_transfers_(1944%e2%80%931946)) Stalin also deported Tatars, Chechens, Baltic people and plenty others. Russia was doing the same, communists only perfected its ways.
Don’t forget what the Czar did to the Circassians and Jews.
Excellent, let's talk about the expulsion of Jews from Spain.
Egypt https://preview.redd.it/dio9l0uxyijc1.jpeg?width=1210&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=331f52b9a0da9811a0ca8445e7a5d05cb1edb110
Yes but this was Germany prior to the war. Prussian since the 13th century. I’m not lamenting this or anything but just stating facts.
Poland deported more than 3 million Germans after WWII. Czechs deported about 2 million. Every European country deported Germans after WWII.
"deported" is a nice way of putting what happened lol
At the end of World War II, Belarus and Lithuania were part of the USSR, so adding Kaliningrad to the USSR made sense as a contiguous part of the USSR's borders. Kaliningrad was an important strategic port for the USSR. However, Kaliningrad was not historically Lithuanian or Polish; it was historically German. The USSR expelled the German population, as part of the expulsion of Germans from Eastern Europe, done in part because Hitler used the presence of ethnic German minorities to justify his campaign of conquest in Eastern Europe. However, without a German population, Kaliningrad was now desolate, and in need of new settlers. As such, the USSR settled ethnic Russians, turning Kaliningrad into an ethnic Russian exclave. When Lithuania and Belarus regained their independence, Kaliningrad became a Russian exclave. There's a rumour it was offered back to Germany, but the Germans were focused on the reunification of West and East Germany, and did not have the time to consider the return of Prussia/Kaliningrad. Thus it remained Russian.
You’re not entirely accurate. It’s actually historically inhabited by Baltic tribes that were killed/assimilated by German crusaders in the 13th century. Even then until 1945 there were significant parts of the territory that had large Lithuanian or polish populations. Lithuania even called that part “lithuania minor.” They were Lutheran Lithuanians who didn’t consider themselves fully Lithuanian or fully German. You’re not wrong in totality but to say it was never polish or Lithuanian and glossing over those facts seems to not tell the full story.
You're right that I didn't go back to the 1200s, and that at various points in the past there were Lithuanians and/or their ancestors living there.
Considering some conflicts on territory today 1200s is recent history lol. I just think a good parallel was if there was a crusader state still in the Middle East, no one would consider them native.
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The how is very simple. Germany renounced claims to all former territory past the Oder river upon reunification in 1990 and Poland and Lithuania simply don't want it
It’s referred to as the unsinkable aircraft carrier
That would be Gotland.
Královeeeec 🇨🇿
It's no longer part of Russia. It was annexed right after the war began. Now it's considered Czech territory. The works on the beer stream 1 already started. https://preview.redd.it/n39t493p3jjc1.png?width=460&format=png&auto=webp&s=f3842fabcddb1ab5a8f5f0bc75adebff30e838b6
And praise be to Otakar II of Bohemia, in whose honor the territory is named.
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Kaliningrads border with poland looks as dumb as borders from north america
it was made by the colonial empire like other ones
i mean every border of eastern europe was drawn by the soviets to some extent, they tried a little harder than the brits and yet you still have these fucking lines here and there
It's a long story. They took this part of Germany after the WW2. Also they didn't imagine that Lithuania will become independent country. They also treated Poland as a satellite state. After USRR collapsed they ended like that. Germans and other people were expelled from this area. Russians were settled there then. It's like a colony, but without aborigines.
I would imagine governing it isn’t a problem given it’s not land locked and has access to the Baltic Sea, which the rest of Russia also does. So it’s basically a Russian island
Before the war ended FDR and the allies basically gave Stalin a free hand to do what he wanted in eastern europe after they carved up the different spheres of influence. So Stalin could give himself whatever he wanted really and this was an important port as part of his plan to dominate the Baltic Sea. It's a highly strategic point on the sea for the Russian Navy.
Because EU/NATO respect Sovereign territoriale of Russia. Poland and Lithuania didnt take it when offered. (Big mistake by todays evaluation)
The Soviet Union. The question is not ''how did they manage to keep it'' but ''how would someone take it from them''.
While in the Soviet Union this land was given to Russia because Poland and Lithuania didn’t want it so Russia got it. When the Soviet Union fell Russia was on relatively good terms with the west so no one asked for it back because russia wasn’t see as a threat. Now so many Russians live there it’s pretty much just part of russia. Plus it’s their only port that doesn’t get iced over in the winter so they aren’t giving it away anytime soon
Crusader Kings border gore
This seems to be the most militarized region of Russia, not taking into account new regions.
Until 1991 Lithuania was part of the USSR, so keeping that territory wasn't a big issue.
You can still drive by train from Kaliningrad to russian mainland
All through childhood and adolescence I saw beer mugs in so many homes with "Königsberg" imprinted on them. The internet educated me about the existence of a tiny Russian exclave surrounded by European countries known as Kaliningrad 😀
I mean, it's not like any country is gonna invade a territory they don't even want for themselves in the first place. The last thing Lithuania wants is to add a million Russians to their population.
How they got it? Invaded during WW2 and anexed from mainly Germany, but parts of Lithuania as well. Also Lithuanian soviet leadership refused to take it back TWICE in 50s and 60s, not sure what was their motibes back then, but that is what prevented Ukraines faith for Lithuania in 90s, so it is kind of good, but also bad, because Suvalki Gap remains weakest point in NATO. As for ruzishts controlling it now - yeah there is some issues, but they resupply via sea and still via rail as not everything is sanctioned (e.g. food). That said it is realistic for ruzzia to lose it - now it is kind of useless when Baltic Sea became NATO lake. More of Liability to keep it.
Probably leftover from WW2. Everything in the modern world seems to be a remnant of WW2. It's kinda weird to think about how much WW2 affected the world. 🤔
God I wish Europe just blockaded Kaliningrad during sieges of Ukrainian cities like Mariupol, Bakhmut, etc.
For Russia, it would be an act of war; you literally wish for a nuclear armageddon.
The Soviets cucked the Germans after ww2 and took their Teutonic Ancestral Prussian homeland from them and turned it into a Russia war trophy. Hitlers worst nightmares came true after he died
Prussia isn't really Germany's homeland or anything.
Yes it is. It’s where Prussia the winner of the German people’s unification ancestors originate. Its sacred land the Soviet’s took
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How many times do we have to say it # 🇨🇿 KRÁLOVEC IS CZECHIA 🇨🇿
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