EU,Russia,Kaliningrad, Visas

And the issue raises it's head again, with this time the local newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reporting on it. To make a long story short, Kaliningrad is a Russian enclave cut off from the main part of the country by states which are undergoing EU membership negotiation right now. Ie. It will be surrounded by EU member territory, and supposedly the new members will be part of the Schengen treaty (about free movement over internal borders) sooner or later.
And what changed in the local situation this time was that Russians retracted the visa free travel from Finland to St. Petersburg and the near region with short notice. Of course all this ties neatly into Vladimir Putin's proposal of visa free travel for Russian citizens into EU countries, both due to the Kaliningrad issue and otherwise. And finally, it has to be noted the visa-free travel has so far applied only to visits to Russia, Russians themselves have needed to apply for the visas all the time.
As for local importance, the cancellation of visa-free cruises will most likely be visible only in form of lost revenues on the Russian side.

Slow return from the snail mail wilderness

Only a few days now, 29th is the date the DSL ought to be delivered. Sometime this week in all likelihood in any case. So far so good,and then it's back to work,play and yes, writing the weblog.

DSL adventures

Finally on order, at a fairly moderate 60 €/month and 50€ for install (for a 512/512 line). And of course it turns out some other company owns the last mile of copper and is none too keen to share access to it's wiring. Ie. Extra chaotic delivery times, anything from 2 to 10 weeks. We'll see.