TEN Index

July 16-31, 1996, Vol. 2, No. 14


Transboundary News

LAKE PEIPSI (CHUDSKOE) REGION -- A PRELIMINARY AGREEMENT ON THE TERRITORIAL STATUS OF THE WATER BODY BETWEEN THE HEAD OF THE NARVA RIVER AND LAKE PEIPSI was reached in Estonian-Russian negotiations in their eighth round, according to representatives from both sides. The border today at the head of the river for all intents and purposes blocks Russian ships from entering the Lake from the river today, as the Estonian-Russian border crosses Russian soil to the east of the water body. The new agreement would provide access to the river to Russian ships by transferring a total of 3.69 square kilometers from Estonia to Russia. It is estimated that under the new agreement about 1500 Russian ships could pass unobstructed through this territory each year. (Delovoi Peterburg and Vesti, 16 July)

RUSSIAN FEDERATION -- PERSONS CROSSING THE RUSSIAN BORDER will be allowed to import untaxed a total of only US $1,000 worth of goods with them beginning on August 1. The rule is expected to affect millions of small business people who "shuttle" goods into Russia as personal freight. The total annual value of their sales has been estimated at US $10 billion. Goods with a value of $1,000 will be taxed a the flat rate of 30%. This new rule represents a sharp decrease in the amount of allowable untaxed imported goods from its previous US $2,000. Exceptions will be made only to those Russian living outside Russia for more than 6 months or those immigrating to the Russian Federation. The government expects the new import rule will bring an additional 2 billion dollars to the state. (Nevskoe Vremiia, 24 July)

RIGA-VILNIUS -- LITHUANIAN-LATVIAN BORDER DELINEATION NEGOTIATIONS have been indefinitely postponed. The Latvian side sent a request to postpone the meeting scheduled for July 22 in Vilnius, according to the head of the Lithuanian delegation Rimantas Sidlauskas. Although the request did not indicate the reasons for postponement, such requests has become a usual practice for avoiding scheduled meetings. The last meeting in Riga discussed Latvian proposal to base territorial waters line on 1992 UN marine law convention. However, members of Lithuanian delegation considered the issue of oil field found in the economic zone located outside territorial waters to be too large an impediment to accept the 1992 marine law convention. (ELTA, 21 July)

MOSCOW-VILNIUS -- LITHUANIAN AND RUSSIAN DELEGATIONS REACHED A PARTIAL CONSENSUS on an economic zone and continental shelf delimitation draft agreement during a meeting on July 30-31. The negotiators are reported to have agreed on about 90% of a draft agreement concerning their land border. Disagreement persists on the water border line stretching across Lake Vistytis and mouth of the Nemunas River. The Russian delegation had proposed to draw the border in conformity with the administrative line of the Lithuanian Soviet Republic and Kaliningrad established in 1963. The Lithuanian delegation maintains that such a legal mechanism was not provided for in bilateral agreements on international relations signed with Kaliningrad in 1991. The negotiations were also hindered by the issue of D-6 field located in the Baltic Sea territory not belonging to any of the states. The delegations met for the fifteenth time. (ELTA, 31 July)

PSKOV, RUSSIA -- CONFUSION OVER A SIMPLIFIED REGIME OF BORDER CROSSING for local residents in the Pskov (Pikhva) border region with Estonia and Latvia has resulted in an official Estonian inquiry to Russian authorities. The Pskov office of the Estonian Consulate in St. Petersburg reported that there were no signs yet that such a system was in place although it should be functioning by now according to a recent Russian decree. Estonian Foreign Ministry has now requested that the Russian Embassy in Tallinn explain the fate of the simplified border regime. The simplified regime was intended to aid those relatives who live on both sides of the border. The town of Pechory (Petseri) is also included in the border zone. The decree was supposed to have come into force on June 26. The question is all the more delicate for Estonia because the area in question, including Pechory, belonged to Estonia in the interwar period. (ETA, 26 July)

BUSLOVSKAIA, RUSSIA-VAINIKALA, FINLAND -- ENLARGEMENTS AND IMPROVEMENTS OF THE RAILWAY BORDER STATION have been completed and the station officially inaugurated. Construction of the station lasted one year. This border crossing has became particularly important for Russia after Finland joined the European Union last year, as it is Russia's only border with the European Union today. Sixty percent of all rail cargo between Russia and Finland passes at this point, as does 100% of all rail passengers. The growth of cargo transport over this station now increases by 13-15% each year. A new optic telephone cable is to link Helsinki, Petersburg, and Moscow through the border station by the end of the year. (Nevskoe Vremiia and Vecher. Peterburg, 30 July)

LATVIA -- SEVERAL CHANGES IN LATVIAN VISA CONDITIONS have been made for foreigners travelling to Latvia, following the meeting of a government cabinet meeting on July 23. A new category, Special Visas, has been introduced, which allows persons in Latvia engaged in scientific research, commercial work, as well as international projects that involve Latvia, or work as teachers, to stay longer than three months in Latvia without special permission. The same meeting also resulted in a ruling that allows holders of Vatican passports to stay up to 9O days in Latvia without a visa. (LETA, 25 July)

Environmental News

KALININGRAD -- CLEANUP OF THE BALTIC SEA COASTLINE FOLLOWING AN OIL SPILE near Kaliningrad some weeks ago has been slow. Latvian officials responsible for the cleanup said the inhabited coastal areas have been largely freed from the substance, but that there are still large stretches of coastline which are polluted. Latvian Sea Forces officer Romans Ganins expressed dismay that the government had not done more to fix the ecological catastrophe, and said that only in a few districts had local authorities shown initiative. He said that the oil had now broken down into pea-sized balls that were scattered on the sand and coastline in a belt of 5-6 meters. (LETA, 26 July)

BATEREINAIA BAY, RUSSIA -- OIL INDUSTRY GIANT SURGUTNEFTEGAZ HAS RECEIVED THE RIGHT TO CONSTRUCT A PORT on the Gulf of Finland in Batereinaia Bay, about 60 kilometers west of Kronshtadt. In exchange for financing the project, Surguneftegaz has received the right to export six million additional tons of oil in 1996 and 4 million additional in 1997. An oil pipeline will be constructed from the city of Kirishi to Batareinaia through the Izkhorskoe Plato, an inlet which supplies much of the drinking water to Leningrad Oblast. An oil spill in this area would likely result in widespread drinking water contamination, according to environmental experts. (Delovoi Peterburg, 30 July, and Chas Pik, 31 July)

MOSCOW -- THE STATE DUMA FAILED TO OVERTURN THE VETO ON THE LAND CODE of the Council of Federation (upper house). The Council had vetoed the Code because the Council had reservations about the limits which had been placed on the farmers' future capacity to conduct private land transactions with existing kolkhoz authorities. A joint commission with representatives from both lower and upper houses will continue to work on the legislative project for the Land Code. (Delovoi Peterburg, 23 July)

ST PETERSBURG -- CITY AUTHORITIES HAVE GUARANTEED NEW FUNDS TO VODOKANAL SPB for the completion of the construction of new equipment for incinerating the solid residues from the city's Central Sewer Station. The new equipment will provide for a three-stage filter system for the incinerating exhaust. Vodokanal financed the construction until now with the assistance of a loan from the French government. The equipment is being built by the Petersburg firms Arsenal and Kirov Factory. Completion of the project is expected by February 1997. (Delovoi Peterburg, 16 July)

HELSINKI -- A FINNISH FIRM BASED IN TAMPERE HAS RECEIVED AN ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD in an European Union competition for the production of its lumber-harvesting equipment. The prize was awarded to equipment which is based on its six feet-like equipment, which harms the surrounding terrain much less than wheels or treads. The equipment is able to cut and transport lumber in almost any conditions, as it can move sideways as well as backward and forward. (SPb Vedomosti, 25 July)

SOSNOVOI BOR, RUSSIA -- THE DIRECTOR OF THE LENINGRAD ATOMIC ELECTRIC STATION (LAES), Anatoly Eperin, has announced his resignation in the wake of weeks of worker protests at the station. Workers of the electric station have organized several protest meetings in the last weeks in protest of poor management of the station. LAES Workers' demands included payment of salaries delayed since April, resignation of the director, and an investigation of the financial operation of the station. High-level officials of LAES had also publicized a letter which accused the director of mismanagement. (SPb Vedomosti, 23 July)

LENINGRAD OBLAST -- MORE THAN 7,000 HECTARES OF FORMER MILITARY LAND WILL GO ON SALE later this year as the army prepares to shed unused and useless plots of land. Most of the land will come from military settlements and bases where land use has traditionally been inefficient. The densest concentration of such plots is located in the area between Chernaia Rechka and Sertolov, where a military settlement was created in 1936 on the eve of the Soviet-Finnish War. More than 30,000 residents live in this area, of which only 5,000 are military personnel. (Delovoi Peterburg, 23 July)

VILNIUS -- THE GENERAL DIRECTOR OF INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA) Hans Blix met recently with Lithuanian President Algirdas Brazauskas to discuss the future of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP). Mr. Blix admitted that Lithuania had neither the economic nor the financial possibility to phase out INPP in the near future. The head of the IAEA noted that his agency would complete this plant safety analysis in the near future. Mr. Blix said strengthening of INPP safety should help to reduce the fears of neighboring Baltic and Nordic countries. The director of the IAEA urged Lithuania to further cooperation with Russia in nuclear energy sector. Mr. Blix said he did not regard the Ignalina plant as unsafe as the Chernobyl plant despite the fact they have the same type of reactors. (ELTA, July 18)

PALDISKI, ESTONIA -- PALDISKI, THE FORMER SOVIET TOP-SECRET MILITARY SUBMARINE INSTALLATION in northwestern Estonia, is working hard to overcome its Soviet inheritance of a poor service infrastructure and environmental condition. The Estonian company AS Martoom has now decided to comprehensively refurbish one of Paldiski's houses and turn it into a good-quality hotel and business center. Toomas Undusk, sharehold

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