title: Kaliningrad Oblast 2024: Russia's vessel of havoc on the Baltic Sea
abstract: Kaliningrad Oblast was created as a war trophy and a symbol of Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945/1946. For nearly seven decades, it played a strictly military role in Soviet and Russian foreign policy, mostly limited to its Baltic Sea surroundings. This changed when Vladimir Putin came back to the Kremlin for his third presidential term. With the annexation of Crimea, followed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the semi-exclave's visibility and importance in other geographical and topical a
journal: Econstor (Econstor)