KALININGRAD WANTS TO GO AHEAD WITH OIL EXPLORATION.

Complainingthat the negotiations with Lithuania are going nowhere, Yuri Matochkin,the head of the Kaliningrad regional administration, said thathis region may go ahead with oil exploration "unilaterally,"BNS reported August 21. Although he said that he wanted to reachan accord with Vilnius, Matochkin suggested that Kaliningrad andthe German and Russian oil companies backing the project couldnot afford to wait much longer. Meanwhile, the Kaliningrad governmentannounced that it would open Baltiisk, the formerly closed Russianmilitary city, early next year.