Translated material
Braid being pulled
Instead of a special tourist zone, the Kaliningrad region so far receives only scandals
The westernmost Russian region is one of seven constituent entities of the Russian Federation that have tourist and recreational zones on their territory. The Kaliningrad tourist zone is “registered” on the Curonian Spit - this is a narrow strip of land (about 100 km in length) between the Baltic Sea and the Curonian Lagoon, which is divided in half by Lithuania and Russia.The spit has the status of a national park and is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Rare species of plants grow there (some trees even “dance”, bending into fancy rings) and an ornithological station has been operating for more than a hundred years.
On the Lithuanian side, the municipality of Neringa, consisting of modest and, as usual among the Baltic states, cozy towns of Nida, Juodkrante, Pervalka, is loved by tourists - according to expert estimates, up to 1.5 million people visit there every year. The benefits of civilization and nature are at their service - from working water supply, an abundance of pastry shops, cafes, restaurants and entertainment to clean beaches (Blue Flag according to EU grading), various ecological routes (both forest and water). On the Kaliningrad side there are also three settlements - the villages of Lesnoye, Rybachy and Morskoye. Entertainment and the benefits of civilization are difficult here - the road requires repairs, there are problems with gas, water, electricity, sewerage, and mobile communications. There are several “oases” of tourist well-being (at the recreation center of the Central Bank, Governor of the Kaliningrad Region Georgy Boos, for example, celebrated his 45th birthday in January, and in the Altrimo Hotel in mid-September, State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov vacationed with his family, trying in vain to catch a Curonian eel ), but that's all. About two years ago, local authorities decided that they could make the Kaliningrad part of the spit no worse than the Lithuanian part - and the status of a tourist zone should help with this.
It took about a year to clarify the relationship between the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Federal Agency for Special Economic Zones (RosSEZ) and the regional government, each of which followed its own line. The project hung by a thread for a while; only after the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Yuri Trutnev, arrived in the region, it became clear that this department was not against the development of tourism on the spit. The foreign consulting company Roland Berger Strategy Consultants took up the concept of tourism development. While she was preparing the project, and then it was wandering through various authorities, a fundamental change occurred - instead of one site for the tourist zone, four (about 320 hectares) were allocated along the entire length of the spit. The project called “Luxury of Privacy” with a fashionable hotel and luxury bungalows for VIP tourists has been postponed. We brought in another organization - the Kurortproekt Research Institute, which is now working on a new tourist zone project.
The role of the “roots person” in the project is assigned to the architect Lev Misozhnikov. Kaliningrad residents know him well - he is the “father” of the House of Soviets. It was planned that in the center of Kaliningrad (near the place where the Prussian royal castle stood, blown up during Soviet times) a building would appear in which all the power structures of the region would unite. By the end of the 1980s it was built. However, it has not yet been put into operation - the foundation is “floating”. This is how this angular, tall, uninhabited building rises above Kaliningrad, whose residents have nicknamed the House of Soviets a monster. Several years ago, the editor of the Parisian magazine Citizen-K, Frederic Chauban, came to the city, collecting such architectural originalities. As a result of the visit, a publication was born in which the Kaliningrad “monster” is compared with the head of a giant giant.
Now the creator of this giant was entrusted with the Curonian Spit. In a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent, Mr. Misozhnikov said that he was thinking about launching electric vehicles across the territory of the national park, creating an electrolysis sewage system, and a water desalination station. “The regime of the national park is strict, at first we wanted to make alluvial areas here so that the main objects could be placed on them, without particularly affecting the spit itself. But RosSEZ did not support it, saying that the legislation does not regulate the status of alluvial territories. And we abandoned the idea,” said Mr. Misozhnikov.
In an effort to reassure environmentalists, he clarified that while developing tourism, they will not cut down trees on the spit, and if they do, it will be a small amount. “Maybe something will be cut down at the very beginning of the spit, its “root”, where we want to place our “interception,” Mr. Misozhnikov clarified. By “interception” he means the creation of a multifunctional complex on the approaches to the spit that would attract people. The Kaliningrad Nature Reserve is the leader among the national parks of the Russian Federation in terms of attendance. If additional tourist sites appear there, the burden on nature will increase. Therefore, it was intended to “intercept” people, getting them interested in a water park, fitness, SPA, conference room, whatever before entering the spit.
However, according to Vremya Novostei, problems may arise with the implementation of this idea - not all of the four plots allocated for the tourist zone can be properly designed. In the village of Morskoye and at the “root” of the spit, land registration is hampered by the proximity to municipal cemeteries. So a compromise option cannot be ruled out - the creation of main tourist sites only near the village of Rybachy and nowhere else. However, if nothing is built at all, this will probably not surprise anyone. The fuss around the Curonian Spit, organized in recent years, has not yet brought visible results.
The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation recently published the results of its audit, according to which the creation of tourist zones is actually progressing only in one or two regions, while in the rest it is not possible to overcome the paper stage. The Kaliningrad region is one of those lagging behind. Moreover, this is aggravated by scandals that periodically arise here. The last one died down last week.
In the spring of 2007, the Curonian Spit received a new director of the national park administration - a young native of Perm, Evgeniy Snegirev, who had previously worked in the press service of the Ministry of Natural Resources, was sent from Moscow to this position. Acting in the image and likeness of Oleg Mitvol, one of the key persons of the ministry at that time, he initiated several high-profile cases relating to property, achieving, in particular, the demolition of a cafe by the sea, owned by Galina Bulbova (wife of a local native, deputy chairman of the State Drug Control Agency, Alexander Bulbov , who has been in custody since the fall of 2007). Now all that remains of the cafe is a fireplace, standing forlornly in a forest clearing. For the owners of the establishment, this is, naturally, an unbearable sight. So much so that a letter was sent to the Ministry of Natural Resources (as Mr. Snegirev claims, initiated by Ms. Bulbova and a group of her sympathizers), in which the young director is accused of basically everything - even of being young. In the past, the ministry would hardly have paid attention to such a complaint (given its “background”). But the department has been in a fever for a long time (Mr. Mitvol has practically been dismissed), and the Rosprirodnadzor inspection finally came to the spit. Local owners of luxury real estate on the territory of the national park, with whom young Mr. Snegirev fought unsuccessfully, froze in anticipation - what if their opponent was fired? But no, the director resisted; the inspectors did not find any confirmation of the “walkers’” complaints.
However, given the instability in the Ministry of Natural Resources, one cannot confidently say that Mr. Snegirev was left alone for a long time. Practice shows that national park directors are often changed - this is a minus. But for them there is also a plus in this difficult work - after leaving their post, they, as a rule, acquire real estate on the spit.