RUSSIA - Kaliningrad Oblast / Калининградская область

Kaliningrad Oblast (Russian: Калинингра́дская о́бласть, Kaliningradskaya oblast), often referred to as the Kaliningrad Region in English , or simply Kaliningrad, is a federal subject of the Russian Federation that is located on the coast of the Baltic Sea. As an oblast, its constitutional status is equal to each of the other 84 federal subjects. Its administrative center is the city of Kaliningrad, formerly known as Königsberg. It is the only Baltic port in the Russian Federation that remains ice-free in winter. The oblast is an exclave, bordered by Poland to the south and Lithuania to the east and north, so visa-free travel to the rest of Russia is possible only by sea or air. The territory was formerly the northern part of East Prussia, with the southern part now being Poland's Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. With the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, the territory was annexed by the Soviet Union. Following the post-war migration and expulsion of the German-speaking population, the territory was populated with citizens from the Soviet Union. Today virtually no ethnic Germans remain; most of the several thousand who live there are recent immigrants from other parts of the former Soviet Union. Kaliningrad is the only Russian Baltic Sea port that is ice-free all year round and hence plays an important role in maintenance of the Baltic Fleet. As an exclave of Russia proper, it is surrounded by Poland (Pomeranian Voivodeship and Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship), Lithuania (Klaipėda County, Marijampolė County and Tauragė County) and the Baltic Sea. Its largest river is the Pregolya. It starts as a confluence of the Instruch and the Angrapa and drains into the Baltic Sea through the Vistula Lagoon. Its length under the name of Pregolya is 123 km (76 mi), 292 km (181 mi), including the Angrapa.