In mid-March, the State Security Service (VDD) of Latvia published its annual public report. “While the new coronavirus COVID-19 disease has for some time brought other priorities to the forefront of public safety, national security issues remain relevant,” said VDD Chief Normunds Mežviets (Vdd.gov.lv, March... MORE

In light of the three Baltic States’ and other Central and Eastern European countries’ continued struggle against Russian disinformation, Latvian President Egils Levits emphasized that international law needs to be improved to promote cyber security and limit sovereign countries’ vulnerabilities to information warfare (President.lv, February... MORE

As of early 2020, Latvia remains the only Baltic State whose telecommunications market is not wholly controlled by a foreign-owned private enterprise, namely the Swedish companies Telia and Tele2. This situation is particularly important in light of developments in this sector last year. According to... MORE

Since 2014, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Moscow has worked hard to reduce cargo traffic via seaports in the three Baltic States—Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia—to punish them for what the Kremlin sees as their unfriendly policies. Moscow has been doing this by building up its own... MORE

The future of Christian Orthodoxy in Latvia faces a choice between the Estonian scenario, in which there will be two Orthodox Churches recognized by Riga (one subordinate to Moscow and the other to Constantinople), or the Ukrainian one, in which there will emerge a single... MORE

Introduction—Nordic and Baltic Governments Seek Common Positions for Relations with China On April 1, 2019, a meeting was held between the foreign ministers of the Baltic States and Nordic Countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland), or NB8; and of the Visegrád... MORE

Introduction: China’s (Junior) European Partners in the “16+1” On the heels of People’s Republic of China (PRC) President Xi Jinping’s busy bilateral tour in Western Europe in March, PRC Premier Li Keqiang started his own multilateral tour in Eastern Europe in April. Designed primarily to... MORE

Financial corruption scandals are not a novel phenomenon in the Baltic States. Multiple Baltic banks have repeatedly been implicated in money laundering schemes involving politicians and businessmen from Russia and other former Soviet countries. But what is notable about the latest wave of revelations is... MORE

China’s Touchstone Capital Partners is ready to invest up to 15 billion euros ($16.9 billion) in the construction of an undersea tunnel linking Finland and Estonia, according to Finnish backers of the project (Helsingin Sanomat, March 8). Such an injection of funds could mean that... MORE

Two weeks ago (February 5, 2019), the Lithuanian intelligence community released its annual “National Threat Assessment” (Kam.lt, February 5). As in the past, this report asserts that the greatest intelligence threats to Vilnius come from Russia and Belarus. But for the first time, it adds... MORE