Supplying Kaliningrad with everything necessary by sea is absolute priority for Russia - Kremlin

MOSCOW. June 4 (Interfax) - The Kremlin attaches absolute priority to supplying the Kaliningrad region with everything necessary by sea, and there must be no problems there, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.

"Providing Kaliningrad with everything necessary via a sea route is among the absolute priorities for our country, which President [Vladimir] Putin has spoken about repeatedly," Peskov said when asked to comment on media reports that shipments via sea to the Russian enclave have been underfinanced.

The federal government is responsible for ensuring that the Kaliningrad region is supplied properly, Peskov said. "This is an important issue, and any problems in supplying Kaliningrad are just out of the question," he said.

According to earlier media reports, sea shipping operators were alarmed by what they saw as the government's inadequate subsidies for shipments to Kaliningrad. In particular, 20 operators reportedly applied for around 20 billion rubles in subsidies but actually received only two billion rubles.