Latest Articles about Baltics

Lithuania Contracts for LNG Terminal

In 2011, Lithuania became the first European Union member country to enact EU energy market reform on national territory (see EDM, July 7, 2011). Lithuania opted for the most far-reaching version of this anti-monopoly legislation (“unbundling,” under the EU’s Third Energy Package). It requires separation... MORE

Baltic Nuclear Power Plant Project Contends with Extraneous Issues

The Baltic regional nuclear power plant project, at Visaginas in Lithuania, is moving forward despite unfavorable international circumstances. At this point, the adverse circumstances are not internal to the project. They are extraneous to it, originating variously from Russia and from Europe.Last July, Lithuania selected... MORE

Permanent Status Sought for NATO’s Baltic Air-Policing Mission

Discussions are ongoing in NATO about prolonging the air-policing mission over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The mission’s prolongation will necessitate a decision at NATO’s summit in May in Chicago. Resource constraints and political considerations seem to complicate that decision unnecessarily.This small air-policing mission represents the... MORE

Russia Blocks Consensus At OSCE’s Year-End Conference

On December 6-7 in Vilnius, the OSCE’s year-end ministerial conference dramatized this organization’s vulnerability to sabotage by the Kremlin. That vulnerability is inherent in the OSCE’s own structure and modus operandi, which enable Russia to exercise discretionary veto powers under this organization’s consensus rules.Lithuania, holder... MORE

Russian MFA Defends Soviet Annexation of Baltic States and Moscow

On December 1 and 2, respectively, Lithuania’s and Estonia’s ministries of foreign affairs (MFAs) refuted the Russian MFA’s latest claims that the three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) had voluntarily joined the Soviet Union in 1940. Moscow’s claims in this regard are hardly new;... MORE