I think you've misremembered geography here - a straight line from "mainland" Russia to Kaliningrad cuts through Lithuania and Latvia, and to involve Poland her

I think you've misremembered geography here - a straight line from "mainland" Russia to Kaliningrad cuts through Lithuania and Latvia, and to involve Poland here, you'd have to be drawing a line from Belarus. Additionally, when Kaliningrad was handed over to the Soviets, it was contiguous as part of the USSR. There was no "design" to make the Russians upset about it. Map: https://imgur.com/a/xtBJAig https://imgur.com/a/xtBJAig