RIGA-TALLINN -- ESTONIA AND LATVIA HAVE SIGNED A SEA BORDER
AGREEMENT, which will help pave the way for a future free trade
agreement among the three Baltic states. Estonian Premier Tiit
Vahi told press after the signing that a new era had begun in the
relations of the Baltic states. Prime Ministers Tiit Vahi of
Estonia and Andris Skele of Latvia said that the sea border deal
would help to form the basis of a future Baltic customs union. An
initial breakthrough was made in the sea border row between
Estonia and Latvia on May 12 when the prime ministers reached an
agreement on the main issues of the conflict. Estonia had accused
Latvian ships of catching fish in its waters after Estonia fixed
its sea border at 12 miles from the coast. The signed agreement
ends the widely publicized "herring war" in the region. (ETA, 12
July)
MOSCOW-TALLINN -- RED SOVIET PASSPORTS EXPIRED AS TRAVEL
DOCUMENTS IN ESTONIA ON JULY 12, a date which was labeled "Black
Friday" in much of the Russian press in Estonia. The passports
can now be used only within Estonia and are to be replaced by
residence permits or confiscated if the person leaves Estonia,
Aare Evisalu from the border guard department explained. The
train from Moscow to Tallinn was late on July 12 as passengers in
Pihkva/Pskov in Russia rushed on board, trying to reach Estonia
with their Soviet passports before the expiration deadline. New
computer laptops to be carried by all Estonian borderguards will
now verify all residence information. The whole process is aimed
at creating a registry of people living in Estonia in order to
guarantee the security of all Estonians, said an Interior
Ministry representative. (ETA, 12 July)
TALLINN-MOSCOW -- NO PROGRESS WAS MADE IN THE LATEST ESTONIAN-
RUSSIAN BORDER AGREEMENT NEGOTIATIONS which ended on July 10 in
Tallinn. Estonian Deputy Chancellor of the Foreign Ministry Raul
Malk assured a press conference that Estonia has no territorial
claims to Russia, though he added that the Tartu Peace Treaty is
still in force for Estonia. Acknowledgment of the treaty by
Russia could last for just one minute, according to Estonian
officials, after which the border agreement would be signed and
current boundaries accepted by Estonia. The delegations meet next
in September in St. Petersburg. (ETA, 10 July)
RIGA-TALLINN-VILNIUS -- LITHUANIA PASSED THE CHAIRMANSHIP OF THE
BALTIC COUNCIL OF MINISTERS for the following year to Estonia on
July 1. The primary aim of the Council is to achieve general
security in the region and an economic status which would enable
the world to regard the Baltic states as potential members of
NATO and the European Union. An Estonian Foreign Ministry
representative said that Estonia intends to continue to support a
common Baltic customs union and to maintain in interest for the
Via Baltica highway project by raising international investment
in the project. The priority areas of Baltic state defense
cooperation are the Baltic Peacekeeping Battalion BALTPAT, a
common squadron of minesweepers and a joint air radar system. The
Baltic Council of Ministers was formed in July 1994. (ETA, 2
July).
BALTIC STATES-GERMANY -- A MEMBER OF THE GERMAN PARLIAMENT HAS
PRESSED FOR VISA FREE TRAVEL to Germany for Estonian, Latvian and
Lithuanian citizens. Wolfgang von Stetten, head of the German-
Baltic group in the Bundestag, said that 50 million Polish
citizens can travel to Germany visa free, but the citizens of the
three Baltic states cannot and this is something the Balts do not
understand. In calling for Germany not to consider the Balts
"second-class Europeans," he emphasized that the Russian mafia
does not need the Baltic states for coming to Germany, according
to Mr. von Stetten, as the mafia travels to Germany through
Poland. (LETA, 11 July)
MOSCOW-RIGA-TALLINN -- THE RUSSIAN COMMITTEE OF CURRENCY TARIFFS
has decided to abolish railway preferential tariffs on routes
from Russia to Estonia and Latvia as of September 1. An Estonian
Finance Ministry representative said that the decision may only
be long-lasting, as Russian businesses would suffer more from the
loss of the preferential tariffs than Estonian and Latvian. The
management of Latvian Railways thinks that the decision of the
committee came after repetitive statements of the Russia State
Duma which urged the government to slash trade with Latvia.
Lithuania has been left out of the list and therefore the Port of
Klaipeda is a winner, along with the ports of Kaliningrad, St.
Petersburg and Finland. (Postimees, July 9)
PSKOV-TALLINN -- THE FEAR OF THE PRESENCE OF LARGE AMOUNTS OF
RUSSIAN MILITARY EQUIPMENT BASED IN PSKOV OBLAST on the part of
Estonia is groundless, according to Vladimir Nikishin,
representative of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
That military equipment now located in Pskov Oblast is being used
for training purposes and represents no threat to the Baltic
states, Mr. Nikishin stated. He added that levels of equipment in
the oblast do not surpass that permitted by international
conventions. (Pskovskaia Pravda, 6 July)
STOCKHOLM TALLINN -- REGINA BALTICA, THE NEW PASSENGER FERRY OF
ESTLINE, TOOK ITS FIRST PASSENGERS to Stockholm on July 12. The
ferry has been called the largest-ever passenger ferry of
Estonia. Regina Baltica supplements the current Mare Balticum and
now guarantees a daily connection to Stockholm until the end of
August, when the Mare Balticum will be transferred to the
Helsinki-Tallinn route. Regina Baltica was built 16 years ago at
Warstila Shipyard in Turku and was rented to Russia and renamed
Anna Karenina in 1991. The ship was sold by the Baltic Shipping
Company because the St. Petersburg-Kiel route proved
unprofitable. With the arrival of Regina Baltica, Estline hopes
to boost the number of passengers on the Stockholm-Tallinn route
by a half. (ETA, 2 July)
ST. PETERSBURG -- THE RUSSIAN FEDERAL SECURITY SERVICE PURPOSELY
ALLOWED ALEXANDER NIKITIN to obtain sensitive environmental
information on the Northern Fleet in order that the FSB then have
evidence to arrest him, according to a recent statement by Yuri
Shmidt, Mr. Nikitin's lawyer. Mr. Shmidt has argued in public
that the Federal Security Service (FSB) had followed Mr.
Nikitin's activities as soon as he began to work for the
Norwegian environmental organization Bellona and that the FSB
consciously allowed an "information leak". Mr. Nikitin's time in
solitary confinement was recently extended to August 6 in order
that other he appear in court again. The report on which the
accusation of treason is based is available at
http://www.grida.no/ngo/bellona. (Nevskoe Vremiia, 13 July)
SOSNOVII BOR -- THE LENINGRAD NUCLEAR POWER PLANT (LAES) has been
the site of a worker sit-in strike in the past days as workers
have protested against the fact that salaries not received since
March. Workers also have demanded that working conditions be
improved and the station director be dismissed. The workers
report working in closed rooms of up to 50 degrees with no
ventilation. A state commission was formed on July 12 to review
the reasons for the events of the strike and salary payment
situation. Directors of all Russian nuclear power plants have
been invited to participate in the commission. LAES is the only
nuclear station in Russia which is financially independent of
Rosenergoatom. (Smena, 12 July)
VILNIUS -- LITHUANIA NEEDS AT LEAST SEVEN YEARS TO COMPLETE ITS
LAND REFORM, according to the Lithuanian Ministry of Agriculture.
Preliminary accounts of the ministry show that 3,804,000 hectares
of country-side land, including 3,059,000 hectares of arable land
and 745 thousand hectares of forest, is still to be returned to
previous owners. Although the balance between the existing land
area and demand is high, it is impossible to satisfy all land
claims, said the ministry. The problem is that about 867 thousand
hectares of claimed land are already in use by the state today,
and owners of that land must be given plots in other locations.
Demand for the land near bigger cities exceeds supply today, and
the supply in more distant places exceeds demand. (ELTA, 7 July)
TALLINN -- THE SMUGGLING OF OIL PRODUCTS INTO ESTONIA CONTINUES.
The Estonian National Customs Board has fined yet another company
guilty of smuggling oil products into Estonia with three million
kroons and has confiscated their products. The customs
confiscated a total of 6,000 tons of oil products imported by AS
Boliden from Russia. The shipment consisted of low-octane petrol
brand A76, A92 and diesel fuel. Rein Talvik, director general of
the National Customs Board, said that Estonian customs officials
intercepted the first tankcars with smuggled oil products on May
29. Yet the shipment was divided into several lots, and a Russian
refinery kept sending the tankcars to Estonia until June 20,
according to an Estonian customs official. (Aripaev, 5 July)
IGNALINA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT -- SWEDISH AID TO LITHUANIAN NUCLEAR
SECURITY has been presented in the form of new computer equipment
for the Ignalina Power Plant. Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate
experts delivered computers and necessary software to the
Lithuanian State Atomic Energy Security Inspection on July 3. The
equipment will help Lithuanian atomic energy security inspection
to improve work reliability, as many of the present operations
done manually are now to be carried out by computers. The
equipment is also designed for use by other educational and
medical institutions, construction and oil companies which have
activities related to the nuclear field. The equipment cost more
than 250,000 Swedish crowns. (ELTA, 3 July)
PSKOV -- AUTOMOBILE EXHAUST ACCOUNTS FOR THE VAST MAJORITY OF AIR
POLLUTION in the city, according to a newly released study
conducted by specialists of the Analytical Center of the Russian
Academy of Sciences. Bus, car, and truck exhaust accounted for a
minimum of 64% of all air pollution in the city. Particularly
high levels of air pollution were measured in the center of the
city. Nevertheless, automobiles and trucks engines in the city
are increasingly being converted to use propane, which one
station already provides to motorists. This recently opened
station has reportedly already decreased the air pollution in the
city in comparison with pollution statistics from 1994. (Novosti
Pskova, 9 July)
PSKOV -- THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW WASTE TREATMENT PLANT has
been recently evaluated by a Danish representative of the
Ministry of the Environment. The handling of waste from the pig
factory "Pskovskaia" was also evaluated. Almost 3 billion rubles
have been spent on these projects, a part of which was funded by
the Danish government. A report will soon be issued by the Danish
side on the effectiveness of the implementation of the projects.
(Pskovskaia Pravda, 9 July)
TSARSKOE SELO -- THE CONFERENCE "APPROACHES TO SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT PROBLEMS OF THE BALTIC REGION, EUROPE, AND THE WORLD"
was held at the Management Training Center at Kochubei Palace on
July 7-10. An interdisciplinary approach focused on three
dimensions of sustainable development: economical and ecological,
socio-political, and human. Participants came from a wide range
of Russian cities and the Baltic states. The conference was
organized by the St. Petersburg STRATEGY Center and sponsored by
the World Future Studies Federation and the Cultural Initiative
Foundation of the Soros Foundation. (Smena, 12 July)
ST PETERSBURG -- THE SECOND ANNUAL "WEEK OF THE ENVIRONMENT" is
being planned for September. The organizational committee
includes representatives of non-government organizations, city
district administrations, and the city educational committee.
Guests from Finland and Sweden will participate directly in the
program this year. Informational publications on the environment
are already being prepared for the program. The Ecological Club
of the Baltic-Ladoga Region is organized an olympiad competition
for city children and students. An art exhibit is planned at the
Museum of Zoology. (Vecher. Peterburg, 2 July)
ST. PETERSBURG -- THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE "SEARCH,
EXPLORATION, AND DRILLING FOR OIL AND GAS IN THE TIMANO-
PECHORSKII REGION AND BARENTS SEA" was held recently in the city.
Problems discussed at the conference included longer-range
exploration investment, the development of new refineries for
Timano-Pechorii Region, and the construction of smaller
specialized refineries which more closely market demands. Experts
at the conference estimated that in twenty years the majority of
oil products for the St. Petersburg area would come from the
Barents Sea, Komi Republic, and Arkhangelsk Oblast. (Smena, 6
July)
ST. PETERSBURG -- A RECENT SYMPOSIUM ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL DANGERS
OF AUTOMOBILE FUEL USE focused on the need to ban more
effectively the use of leaded gasoline in Russia. Leaded gas is
already banned from sale in Moscow and St. Petersburg, although
no control exists today and the vast majority of the gas sold in
the cities remains leaded. Estimates show that each year the
average resident of these two cities receives 117 grams of lead
from the air, which is much higher than the permitted level.
(Smena, 2 July)
LAKE LADOGA-GULF OF FINLAND -- A CREW RACE FROM LAKE LADOGA
THROUGH THE NEVA RIVER TO THE GULF OF FINLAND ended on the island
of Kronstadt on July 7. The race took place in segments lasting
over the course of several days. Crews from Germany, the
Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, France, Denmark, Finland, Norway,
and Russia participated in the race. A total of 19 boats
finished the race. Concerts and fairs accompanied the race at
rest stops. (Vecher. Peterburg, 11 July)
RIGA -- A NEW RUSSIAN-LANGUAGE JOURNAL, BALTISKII KURS, is be
launched by the firm Dienas Bizness. Baltiskii Kurs will come out
every two months and contain 48 pages of information about
business in the Baltic states and CIS. The journal's executive
director Egils Skele said that the publication aimed to
reestablish contacts between Russian and Baltic business people,
as business contacts between the Baltic states and Russia have
greatly weakened in past years. (LETA, 3 July)
RIGA -- THE LATVIAN ENVIRONMENT MINISTER'S RECENT RESIGNATION WAS
PARTLY FOR ETHICAL REASONS. Maris Gailis, the Minister for
Environment and Regional Affairs and former Prime Minister cited
ethical and political reasons for his sudden resignation. The
former minister mentioned his concern over the worsening
political "ethical climate" in his work, and suggested that this
concern became one of his reasons for his resignation. Mr. Gailis
suggested that his successor should also be from the "Latvia's
Way" party. (LETA, 7 July)
LATVIA -- A UNIFIED NETWORK OF TOURISM INFORMATION CENTERS across
Latvia is to be organized by the Latvian Tourism Council in the
near future. The Council plans to bring together and coordinate
information held by 17 existing centers across the country. Such
networks already exist in Estonia and Lithuania, and the Latvian
Tourism Council hopes that soon there could be a unified Baltic
tourism network. (LETA, 7 July)
ESTONIA -- DEUTSCHE BANK WILL GRANT A LOAN FOR A METHANOL FACTORY
Estonian chemical factory AS Nitrofert to construct a
2-billion-kroon methanol factory in northeastern Estonia.
Nitrofert will cooperate with the German company Linde in
constructing the factory. The construction should start in April
1997. In addition to the new production facility, the nearby port
and railway lines will be reconstructed. All of the shares of
Nitrofert belong to the Russian Gazprom, which will supply gas
for the production of the methanol. Methanol is used in the
production of formalin and urea, which is bought in large
quantities by the furniture industry in Estonia. Two-thirds of
the methanol production will also be exported. (ETA, 5 July)
ST. PETERSBURG -- THE FIRST ORGANIZATIONAL "GAME" FOR CONFLICT
RESOLUTION was held in the Philosophy Department of St.
Petersburg State University on July 1-6. Work focused on
identifying a series of programs for cooperative approaches to
solving a wide variety of conflicts. New concepts and methods of
conflict resolution discussed included the sphere of economics,
labor relations, and management control. The "game" was
organized through the cooperation of the Division of
International Relations of St. Petersburg Technical University,
the Division of Conflictology of the Philosophy Department of St.
Petersburg State University, and the program "Scholars Abroad" of
the University of Washington and Lee.
STRELNAIA, LENINGRAD OBLAST -- REPRESENTATIVES OF THE COUNCIL OF
MINISTERS OF THE NORTHERN COUNTRIES AND THE SWEDISH CONSUL to St.
Petersburg visited the ruins of an old Russian church, built by
Peter the Great from the remains of a Swedish Protestant church.
The Swedish consul expressed his interest in the participation of
Swedish scholars in future archeological work on the site. The
exhibit "Russia-Sweden: By the Will of God" was also opened
during the visit at the Museum of Strelnaia. It was the first
visit of a Swedish diplomat to the site in 120 years. (Nevskoe
Vremiia, 5 July)
ST. PETERSBURG -- CITY INTERNET PROVIDERS WILL NOW BE RESPONSIBLE
FOR PROVIDING THE FEDERAL SECURITY SERVICE (FSB) with access to
all Internet material carried by their Internet nodes. Off-line
electronic mail can be monitored today without great difficulty,
according to city Internet providers. On-line information
will be much more difficult to oversee by the FSB and such a
mechanism for the FSB's monitoring of such material does not yet
exist in the city. (Develoi Peterburg, 9 July)
VILNIUS -- LITHUANIAN BANK DATA WILL APPEAR FOR THE FIRST TIME
ON THE INTERNET. Lithuanian state bank Taupomasis Bankas (Savings
bank) will be the first Lithuanian bank to publish detailed
information about itself on the Internet. Internet users will be
able to find data about many services provided by Taupomasis
Bankas as well as addresses and telephone numbers of all bank
subsidiaries. Foreign investors can find information about bank's
specialized financial brokerage department services, bank
history, international relations and bank's staff in the
Taupomasis bankas Internet information network World Wide Web
pages, according to the bank. See http://www.ltb.tdd.lt
(ELTA, 7
July)
ST. PETERSBURG -- THE PROJECT "VIRTUAL ST. PETERSBURG FOR
ARCHITECTURAL PLANNING AND ELECTRONIC TOURISM" has been launched
with the initiative of scholars of St. Petersburg State
University and the Petersburg Institute of Mechanics and Optics.
A three-dimensional model of the center of the city will
allow viewers from around the world to view the architecture of
the city. The project will provide information on the internal as
well as external structures of city buildings. (SPb Vedomosti, 2
July)
HELSINKI -- A BOOK OF CHARTS for marine travel between Helsinki
and St. Petersburg has been recently published. The book is
intended for private yachtsmen as well as commercial marine
traffic. The charts cover all possible routes between the two
cities. The book is available at yacht clubs in Helsinki. (SPb
Vedomosti, 5 July)
LATVIA-ESTONIA -- GASOLINE IS 1.5-2 KROONS LESS EXPENSIVE per
liter in Estonia than in Latvia, and Latvian motorists are now
traveling to Estonia to buy gasoline. Excise duties on gasoline
were raised in Latvia on June 1. Latvian cars have been appearing
in Southern Estonian petrol stations on a much more regular
basis, a local director of a gasoline chain said. No more than 20
liters of gas can be taken to Latvia over the border in addition
to the vehicle's own fuel tank. (Aripaev, 3 July)
ESTONIA-MOSCOW -- ONLY 40 TELEPHONE CHANNELS LEAD FROM ESTONIA TO
MOSCOW, all of them via one station. Phone service between
Estonia and Moscow has been disrupted since the first days of
July. Kaja Tampere from Eesti Telefon explained that Moscow had
informed Estonia that extensive cable reconstruction and the
overload of the Moscow central exchange were to blame. Moscow had
given instructions to Estonia about new channel direction
switching, but Russian operators in the Moscow central exchange
did not yet know about the switching changes. (ETA, 11 July)
TALLINN -- 851,000 HECTARES OF ESTONIAN LAND WERE ARABLE in 1995,
which represents 9 per cent less than in 1994, the Estonian
Statistical Office has reported. Harvested plots had diminished
by 4 percent but their production volume had improved by 2 per
cent to 520,000 tons. The productiveness of one hectare was 1,688
kilograms of grain in 1995, and only 1,597 kilograms in 1994.
Estonia produced 350 kilograms of grain per capita in 1995.
(ETA, 3 July)