KALININGRAD, November 2. /TASS/. The Kaliningrad Region's security cannot be bargained away in international negotiations, Andrey Kropotkin, the speaker of the region’s Legislative Assembly, told TASS, commenting on an article in an American publication that proposed the "demilitarization of the Kaliningrad Region as a condition for future negotiations on Ukraine."

Earlier, the US military-analytical outlet Breaking Defense published an article by Zack Schneider, a researcher at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation, suggesting that the demilitarization of the Kaliningrad Region be considered as a precondition for future negotiations on Ukraine. The article effectively advocates using the Ukrainian crisis as leverage to reshape the entire military balance in the Baltic region.

"First and foremost, it must be borne in mind that the Kaliningrad Region is not a subject of political horse-trading; it is an integral part of Russia. Issues concerning its security cannot be decided on the basis of proposals put forward by foreign experts. Any attempt to link a settlement of the conflict in Ukraine to restrictions on the defensive capabilities of a particular Russian region is fundamentally misguided, especially when such proposals are accompanied by discussions about the possibility of launching strikes against the Kaliningrad Region.

"As I have said many times, the Kaliningrad Region is first and foremost its people - their families, businesses, schools, and universities. It is our history and our future. The region's security is not a bargaining chip in international negotiations," Kropotkin told TASS.

As part of Russia, the Kaliningrad Region is a semi-exclave, geographically separated from the country's mainland by the territories of European Union and NATO member states. Recently, rhetoric targeting the Russian region has become increasingly hostile, with foreign media outlets publishing threats of an economic and territorial blockade of the Kaliningrad Region.