The Kremlin has characterized Poland’s decision to change the name of the Russian city of Kaliningrad in its official documents as a “hostile act”. Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave squeezed between Lithuania and Poland on the Baltic coast, was called Königsberg before the end of the Second World War, but was later annexed by the Soviet Union and renamed in honor of the politician Mikhail Kalinin.
Polish Development Minister Waldemar Buda said yesterday that Kaliningrad will now officially be called Królewiec, the name it had when it was ruled by the Kingdom of Poland in the 15th and 16th centuries. “We don’t want Russification in Poland and that’s why we decided to change the name to our native language of Kaliningrad and the Kaliningrad region,” Buda said.
