By Caroline Wyatt BBC correspondent in Kaliningrad, Russia

The arrival of the morning train to Moscow is heralded by a bracing Russian victory march at Kaliningrad's spotless main railway station.

The red and yellow carriages arrive bang on time to take hundreds of waiting passengers across Lithuania and into Russia proper.

The platform is packed with relatives saying tearful goodbyes.

Most only make the journey once a year - the journey costs about two weeks' salary for the average worker here, or several months' pension for the elderly.

Cheap and easy

But for the moment, at least, there's no need to buy a visa.

All the travellers need to pass through Poland or Lithuania is a voucher they can get at almost any shop or petrol station.

It's cheap, and above all, simple.

Vera, a smartly-dressed middle-aged woman, is on her way back to Russia after a holiday on Kaliningrad's Baltic Coast.

She wants things to stay the way they are.

"I came here to go to the sanatorium, as I do every year," she tells me.

"I didn't need a visa - we just bought the tickets and came.

"But it will be a problem in the future if we do need visas from the EU. Some people won't be able to afford to come here."

If I have to buy a visa, that means spending more money and that's not good for the family budget

Sergei

Like many older people, Vera is worried by EU plans to introduce visas for Russians travelling to and from Kaliningrad via Poland or Lithuania, once these former Soviet states become part of the European Union.

She can't see why she needs to ask a foreign country for permission to travel from Russia to Russia.

That's the argument Russia's President Vladimir Putin is using to try to pressurise the EU into allowing Russians to travel to and from their Baltic enclave visa-free.

So far, it's had little impact on Brussel's stance.

Family visits

But his position has found support among older Kaliningrad residents, who worry most about money and mistrust the EU.

Sergei is another traveller who hopes Mr Putin will win this argument.

"I have to go through Lithuania to visit my in-laws in Russia," he says.

"If I have to buy a visa, that means spending more money and that's not good for the family budget. But Russia is a strong country and I'm sure that President Putin will win through." Yet that's not a feeling shared by everyone here.

Many have mixed feelings about Russia's alternative suggestion - creating a Cold War-style corridor for this train to pass through Lithuania, sealed off from what will be EU territory.

Some say that would be a humiliation, and they'd prefer visas if the EU is willing to make them cheap and easy to obtain.

Opportunity

Valera and his son Vadim are quite excited at the prospect, interrupting each other to make their point.

"Of course it will be good. We'll be able to go and see the whole of Europe much more easily," says Valera.

His son interrupts. "The EU will give us special conditions for visas. I can't wait."

Of course it will be good, we'll be able to go and see the whole of Europe much more easily

Valera

Valera agrees: "For Vadim and his friends, it will be a great opportunity."

It's mainly the uncertainty that worries people here: they want the issue resolved as soon as possible.

The citizens of Kaliningrad may be Russian by birth and culture, but the young here say they already feel a part of Europe.

That's hardly surprising. Had it not changed hands during World War II, Kaliningrad - or Koenigsberg as it was known - would already have been part of the EU.

Once part of German East Prussia, its farms and homes were seized by Russian soldiers in April 1945, who drove out its German population.

Geographically, it's far closer to Berlin - a mere 600 kilometres - than it is to Moscow, a 21-hour journey by train.

The deputy mayor of the city of Kaliningrad, Sylvia Gurova, says that being just 60 km from Poland and so close to Germany makes it inevitable that many here feel almost as European as they do Russian.

She describes the people here as 'Russian Europeans', and her neat office in the centre of town is dominated by the blue and gold flag of the Council of Europe.

In fluent English, she tells me proudly that Kaliningrad was awarded the flag for its efforts to create good relations with the rest of Europe - and she hopes that will continue.

Economic potential

She believes that the EU's worries that Kaliningrad could become a weak point on its outer frontier, allowing through illegal immigrants or smuggled goods, are overblown.

"Yes, we do have social problems," she admits, "but the image of Kaliningrad you often see in the foreign papers is unfair. We've created 3000 joint ventures here since 1991, including a BMW car assembly plant and another with South Korea."

Economic prosperity may still be a fair way off for the average citizen of Kaliningrad, who earns just 1,900 roubles a month (75 US dollars) but it has a lot of potential, not least its well-educated population of just under one million, and the long sandy beaches of its unspoilt Baltic Sea coast.

It's not quite the "Hong Kong of the Baltic" that it wanted to become when Kaliningrad was declared a Free Economic Zone in 1996, but it is doing its best to attract business and boost employment.

The young "Russian Europeans" of Kaliningrad are hoping that come 2004, the economic benefits Poland and Lithuania may gain from joining the EU could soon spread to Kaliningrad too.