LATVIA DENIES CONSIDERING SALE OF NAVAL BASE TO RUSSIA.

LATVIA DENIES CONSIDERING SALE OF NAVAL BASE TO RUSSIA.

A Latvian Foreign Ministry official yesterday rejected Arkady Volsky’s claim that the Latvian government is discussing a possible sale of the Liepaja naval base to the Russian government. The Riga diplomat said that some Latvian officials had discussed with Volsky only the intentions of some Russian companies to invest in the development of a commercial port in Liepaja. (Itar-Tass, January 14). Volsky, the politically influential chairman of the Russian Entrepreneurs and Industrialists’ Union, publicly stated on January 11 that Russia’s loss of the Liepaja naval base would be "inexcusable" and that the Russian government, not companies, should purchase it back from Latvia. Once the largest Soviet naval base in the three Baltic states, Liepaja was evacuated in 1994 by Russia. (See Monitor, January 13).

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