Polish towns hit as border restriction stems flow of shoppers

Grzechotki, Poland

RUSSIAN shopper Inna swiped her hand in a dismissive gesture as she waited in her car for a Polish border guard to check the visa stamped in her passport. "It's all politics," insisted the feisty middle-aged Kaliningrader who until recently could shop visa-free in an ample strip of territory on the Polish side of the border.

Warsaw suspended its local border traffic agreement allowing visa-free travel with Russia's highly militarised Kaliningrad exclave on July 1 over security concerns, all against the backdrop of the worst tensions between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.