Latest Articles about Baltics
RIFT BETWEEN MOSCOW AND BALTIC STATES: IS IT ALL ABOUT HISTORY?
The presidents of Estonia and Lithuania have refused invitations to attend the May 9 ceremonies in Moscow celebrating the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. This move marks the climax of the ongoing "battle over history" between Moscow and the Baltic countries... MORE
LITHUANIA TO LEAD NATO UNIT IN AFGHANISTAN
Speaking at the high-level NATO conference in Munich on February 12-13, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld singled out for praise Lithuania's contribution to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer had similarly commended Lithuania's contribution to ISAF... MORE
TO ATTEND OR NOT TO ATTEND? THAT’S NOT REALLY THE QUESTION
The chairmen of the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian parliamentary foreign relations committees, along with prominent historians and political scientists from the three Baltic states, have decided to convene an urgent videoconference to restore the sense of common purpose in handling the challenge of the May... MORE
YUKOS CASE REVERBERATING IN LITHUANIA AND FAR BEYOND
In a further disquieting signal ahead of the upcoming George W. Bush--Vladimir Putin summit (see EDM, January 31), the White House announced on January 31 that the United States would support Russia's bid for admission to the World Trade Organization in 2005. Inasmuch as WTO... MORE
WHAT DID PUTIN ACTUALLY TELL RUUTEL, AND HOW DID HE PHRASE IT?
On January 20, Estonia 's President Arnold Ruutel used a radio address from Moscow to tell his country that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to support an official Russian repudiation of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact. If so, the move could suddenly ease the atmosphere of... MORE
LITHUANIA BRACES FOR RUSSIAN MOVE ON MAZEIKIAI OIL COMPLEX
The Russian government's ongoing seizure of the private Yukos oil company threatens to extend into Lithuania . There, a Yukos subsidiary is the majority-owner and operator of the oil-processing and oil-transport industry, Lithuania 's largest industrial asset. The country seeks to prevent, or limit the... MORE
BALTIC DILEMMAS AND THE MOSCOW SUMMIT
On January 12, Latvia's President Vaira Vike-Freiberga announced that she would be attending the VE-Day 60th anniversary summit to be held in May in Moscow. The issue is deeply controversial in the three Baltic states, and Vike-Freiberga's announcement scuttles the November 2004 agreement by the... MORE
PHASE-OUT DILEMMAS AT LITHUANIA’S NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
On December 31, Lithuania shut down the first of two Soviet-era nuclear reactors at the Ignalina nuclear power plant and began the decommissioning process. The European Union required the closure of Unit One by December 2004 and of Unit Two by December 2009, as part... MORE
A BLURRED VISION IN BRUSSELS
On January 5, Poland's leading newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza, printed excerpts from the speech given by the European Parliament' President, Josep Borrell, to the previous day's closed-door session of the Forum for New Economics in Madrid. Borrell, a Spanish Socialist who is critical of the United... MORE
LITHUANIA’S NEW COALITION GOVERNMENT: COMPOSITION, LEADERS, PROGRAM
A left-of-center coalition government took office in Lithuania on December 15, capping complex power-sharing negotiations in the wake of the October parliamentary elections. The coalition includes two mainstream, "establishment" parties, the Social-Democrats and New Union/Social Liberals, governing jointly since 2001; and two populist parties, Labor... MORE