When officials issue an official denial, you know for sure the opposite is true.
Back in February, when the news leaked out about Putin’s new retirement home in Pionerski, Kaliningrad Oblast, The Moscow Times duly reported:

“We have no information on this matter,” Kremlin press secretary Viktor Khrekov said. “I would not exclude the possibility that this [...]

Taxi!

Kaliningrad-Gdansk is one of the world’s slowest train journeys. They say it’s about four hours. Which is a long time to cover just 125K. And there’s still more time to factor in.
First, it’s important to know that all trains in Russia run on Moscow time. So the 18.35 from Kaliningrad to Gdansk actually leaves at [...]

I fully expected to see the old funicular railway in Svetlogorsk. Last time I was here, it was dark and they told me it was closed. What they didn’t mention - or maybe it was my poor Russian - is that the last train ran in 1960.
Not until 1973 did Svetlogorsk get a replacement. Perhaps [...]

A freak cooking accident - probably too much red wine in the bourguinon - resulted in a few cracked ribs. So. It’s been paracetamol rather than prose from me lately.
Obviously, any rib-crushing embraces with Soviet women have also been out of the question. Couldn’t even manage the typing position. But what better place to recuperate [...]

The Nashi kids hit Kaliningrad at the weekend with their ‘Hunt The Dollar’ spectacle.

The Nashi sweep into town dressed in 500 rouble notes. They spread good news about a strong rouble. Then they set off on a hunt to flush out any dollars left in Kaliningrad. The dollar is going down the toilet, they explain [...]

If your favourite colour is concrete, you’ll love Kaliningrad’s landmark, the House Of Soviets. Most people don’t. According to travel writer, A. A. Gill, it’s ‘the most stratospherically ghastly building every conceived’. It is ‘communism’s Taj Mahal and emphatically hellish.’ Well, let’s say that it draws emphatic opinions.
These comments always remind me of a [...]

Kaliningrad Oblast - formerly North East Prussia - has many tranquil villages which appear little changed for centuries.
This is picturesque Gvardeysk. But the picture changes somewhat on closer inspection. Gvardeysk has a strong Russian military presence. And once Poland acquires its new missile batteries pointing at Russia, Gvardeysk is a strong candidate for a battery [...]

This wonderfully convoluted line from Crosby Stills Nash (now playing) just about sums up all the ambivalent attitudes to restoration in Kaliningrad.
Left to rot for fifty plus years, the former Prussian town is being extravagantly restored. But what exactly is being restored? It is not the past or the cultural heritage of any Russian who [...]

Kaliningrad 1910

Kaliningrad 1969

Kaliningrad 2010
There are plans in Kaliningrad to rebuild the old Prussian castle.
Firebombed by the RAF in 1944, it was then levelled in 1969 to build the ill-conceived ‘House Of Soviets‘. Known locally is the ‘Monster’, this concrete egg-box has never been quite finished or occupied. Finally the blot on the landscape has to [...]

Kaliningrad. Crazy Place. Crazy Women.

I blipped and edited this earlier post because I couldn’t find quite the right pic. But then one just popped in my mailbox by happy chance. Baltic Lilya, pictured above, writes to me that she is interested in cooking, cleaning and pressing flowers. And she is interested in a man between [...]