LATVIA-LITHUANIA -- THE CURONIAN SPIT (KURSIU NERIJA) could become part of Lithuania's Baltic Sea coast, according to sources close to the Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Stankevicius. Negotiations on the marine border of both Baltic neighbors nonetheless remain largely frozen. Latvia has proposed to draw the final marine border line by taking Ventes Horn in the Curonian Lagoon (Kursiu Marios) as a reference point on the Lithuanian shore, thereby ignoring the long sand Curonian Spit lying westward of Ventes Horn. In this way, the offshore oil field E-24, to which both countries have made territorial claims, would fall largely to Latvia. Latvia and Lithuania are both eager to secure domestic energy sources in order to reduce their dependency on Russia for fuel supplies. (ELTA, 11 Sep.)
ST. PETERSBURG-STOCKHOLM -- A SWEDISH DIPLOMAT WAS ARRESTED BY THE RUSSIAN FEDERAL SECURITY SERVICE after he reportedly received microfilm with secret documents from a Russian citizen in St. Petersburg. The Swedish diplomat was caught by the security service workers as he received the microfilm inside of a Russian doll in exchange for a cash payment. The diplomat was arrested as he was accepting the microfilm. The diplomat was extradited to Sweden within 24 hours of his arrest. The Swedish Consul General was summoned by the Federal Security Service to discuss the incident. (SPb Vedomosti, 7 Sep.)
MOSCOW-RIGA -- A MEETING BETWEEN LATVIAN PM ANDRIS SKELE AND RUSSIAN PM VICTOR CHERNOMYRDIN set for September was postponed again. Mikhail Demurin of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the postponement came after recent decisions by Latvia which "complicated making a final decision" concerning the meeting. Mr. Demurin stated the reasons as including a recent ruling by the Riga City Council concerning apartment privatization. Mr. Demurin described the ruling as "an attempt to put into practice the stance of the parliament" by making it hard for non-citizens to privatize apartments in Riga. The ruling taken by the Council at the end of August requires non-citizens applying for apartment privatization to show documents from the Department of Citizenship and Immigration proving that they are eligible for a passport. (LETA, 6 Sep.)
HELSINKI-TALLINN -- THE FINNISH INTERIOR MINISTRY IS OPPOSED TO BALTIC ENTRY INTO THE EUROPEAN UNION, according to Finland's largest daily Helsingin Sanomat. A ministry representative cited a fear of illegal immigration as the ministry's reason for opposing Estonia's entry, despite the fact that Finland officially supports the integration into Europe of its three southern neighbors. Persons in the Ministry are afraid that if the Baltic countries, with lower living standards, are accepted into the EU then Finland could be opened up to a wave of people looking for work. "Finland's position is that there are problems concerning freedom of movement and border control in the Baltic countries, especially with Estonia", commented a senior Interior Ministry official. (LETA, 9 Sep.)
VALKA, ESTONIA -- RESIDENTS OF THE ESTONIAN-LATVIAN BORDER TOWN VALKA will soon be issued special identity cards to make for a simplified frontier crossing regime, according to the Latvian Minister for Local Government Ernests Jurkans. Until now each time the border was crossed, passports were stamped, with the result that passports frequently had to be changed, a situation that was particularly difficult for those working in Valga on the Estonian side and for non-citizens. Mr. Jurkans said that future plans by the two countries to cooperate in operating common border control points would further alleviate the situation. (LETA, 15 Sep.)
RIGA-TALLINN -- LATVIAN AIRLINES LATGALES AVIO has offered a plan for cooperative operation with Air Baltic. Latgales Avio is the only internally operating airline in Latvia. According to the director of Latgales Avio, Uldis Martinsons, the small passenger demand today for flying between Latvia and Tallinn and Vilnius means that the two firms should pool their resources. An Air Baltic spokesperson stated that the firm was considering the proposal. (LETA, 9 Sep.)
SILMET, ESTONIA -- SILMET'S "URANIUM LAKE" NEEDS A BILLION KROONS in order to be safely contained, according to the environment commissioner of the European Union, Ritt Bjerregaard, after a recent visit to the toxic waste dump at Silmet. The dump site is reported to contain 1,200 tons of uranium, 800 tons of thorium, 7 kilograms of radium and by-products of the decomposition of uranium. The toxic waste accumulated during the period when Silmet was a secret Soviet military factory. Mr. Bjerregaard inquired into the possibility of liquidating the base completely and other ways of stopping the future usage of the lake as a dump site. Estonian government has already allocated 4.8 million kroons to seal the banks of the lake which in some points is only 20 meters from the Baltic Sea. (ETA, 15 Sep.)
IGNALINA ATOMIC POWER PLANT, LITHUANIA -- Due to a failure, the reactor of power unit No. 1 of the Ignalina power plant was stopped on September 10. The plant entirely halted operation, as the power unit No. 2 was under the planned repair. At 2:10 in the morning (local time) plant operators noticed the leakage of lubricant in the system regulating the turbogenerator of the first power unit. The turbine was turned off according to instructions. Then automatically the reactor of this unit was stopped. Radiation levels outside the plant reportedly did not change. The reasons of the failure are being analyzed. This is already the fifth forced stoppage of the Ignalina plant in its history, but the second in a one-month period. The plant also went of operation from August 27 to September 1. (ELTA, 9 Sep.)
IGNALINA ATOMIC POWER PLANT, LITHUANIA -- THE PLANT'S SHUTDOWN WILL CAUSE significant financial losses, as currently Lithuania must now receive energy from Latvia and Russia instead of exporting it. The plant's budget cannot afford the losses for it has planned several safety improvements in the plant. Although use of all possible reserves guarantees the meeting of the country's energy demand, no export is possible while the plant is stopped. Due to the shutdown, the export of electricity to Belarus and Latvia has been interrupted. The previous shutdown of Ignalina plant from August 27 to September 1 cost the company 9.4 million litas. (ELTA, 11 Sep.)
BALTIC SEA -- A LARGE NUMBER OF THE OIL SPILLS ON THE BALTIC SEA are the result of the illegal activity of commercial ships which economize on on-shore fuel waste processing costs by dumping waste directly into the sea. The ships reportedly dump oil from their engine rooms and unusable fuel during the night when the exact source of the spills cannot be detected. In this way the ships economize on the fees required for oil and fuel disposal on land. Some of the spills have been measured as being several kilometers in length. (SPb Vedomosti, 13 Sep.)
RIGA-LONDON -- THE LATVIAN STATE MINISTER FOR FORESTRY HAS SEVERELY CRITICIZED a recent article in the Daily Telegraph, the British paper, that alleges widespread destruction of flora and fauna by uncontrolled timber felling in Latvia. Arvids Ozols said that a source alleging that lumber cutting has increased by 7OO percent was inaccurate and that less timber was cut than the national quota allows. Mr. Ozols denied that wildlife was being harmed and said that there are several protection plans in place to protect Latvian forests. There had been several reports of British wood importers refusing to take Latvian materials because of the bad publicity. (LETA, 4 Sep.)
VILNIUS -- THE LITHUANIAN PARLIAMENT HAS APPROVED A DRAFT LAW ON NUCLEAR ENERGY. The draft law is aimed at ensuring nuclear safety in using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and preventing the use of nuclear fuel and waste in armament development within Lithuania. The draft law was worked out in accordance with Lithuanian commitments to the Nuclear Safety Convention. The law would regulate nuclear energy management principles, licensing, nuclear entities maintenance, nuclear materials, equipment export and import terms. The draft law is to be further discussed by the National Safety, Environmental Protection, and Economic Committees of the Seimas. (ELTA, 9 Sep.)
NORTHWEST RUSSIA-IMATRA, FINLAND -- NEW NATURAL GAS LINES BETWEEN FINLAND AND RUSSIA are being constructed in order to increase the amount of gas exported to Finland. In addition, compressor stations are being built in the Finnish towns of Imatra and Lappenranta. Four billion cubic meters of gas are now exported each year to Finland from Russia. The work is to be finished in the fall of 1997 and will cost 700 million Finnish marks. An extension of the existing gas line from Russia to Turku is also planned in order that Sweden receive gas by pipeline from Russia. (SPb Vedomosti, 5 Sep.)
MUUGA, ESTONIA -- A NEW OIL TERMINAL FOR TANKERS has been opened in the port of Muuga. The terminal will now accept tankers of displacement of as much as 25,000 tons. Five years ago, five million tons of oil products were transported through Finland each year, and about a million through Estonia. Last year Finland transported number only three million tons and Estonia 4.7 million tons. Estonian-Finnish "cooperation will certainly be enlarged in future, this is important for both Neste and us," said Pertti Moilanen, who will manage the Tallinn project. (Delovoi Peterburg, 10 Sep., and Aripaev, 9 Sep.)
TALLINN -- THE STATE-OWNED ESTONIAN SCRAP METAL FIRM EMEX has launched a new plant for processing metal near Tallinn. New equipment manufactured by the German firm Lindemann for the plant has been described as the most modern in the world. The plant is designed for processing old cars, home appliances and other old metal products, and can automatically remove non-metal components and sort metal products. The cost of the plant was 10 million kroons. EMEX has invested a total of 100 million kroons in the last two years. The plant had a net profit of 41 million kroons and a turnover of over 386 million kroons last year. (Sonumileht, 5 Sep.)
LITHUANIA -- THE LITHUANIAN OIL REFINERY MAZEIKIU NAFTA CO recommenced operation. Oil refinery activities had been halted for eleven days, as Russia stopped crude oil deliveries to Lithuania. At present Mazeikiu Nafta Co crude oil reserves stand at 100,000 tons and 300,000 tons of oil are to arrive in the near future. Since the start of this year, Mazeikiu Nafta Co has been forced to stop its operation for the fourth time. Delays in crude oil deliveries and pipeline repairs halted work at the oil refinery. Average annual capacity of the oil refinery is eight million tons. During the first half of this year company produced only 1.3 million tons of oil products. (ELTA, 6 Sep.)
LENINGRAD OBLAST -- OIL RESERVES OF 40 MILLION TONS have been estimated to lie within oblast territory. An investment competition has been announced by the oblast administration for the right to conduct an oil survey. (Smena, 4 Sep.)
KUUSAMO, FINLAND -- The 3RD INTERNATIONAL TAIGA RESCUE NETWORK CONFERENCE "Depending on Trees - Sustainability in the Northern Forests" will be held in Kuusamo on October 24-29. The conference will examine the boreal forest ecosystem and how to preserve the ecological value of the forests while providing local communities with employment. Using Karelia as its focus, the conference will combine indigenous, industry, science and NGO perspectives in order to explore this question in the debate on protection and use of the world's boreal forests. Contact Kaisa Raitio, Finnish Nature League, P.O. Box 226, 00151 Helsinki, Finland, tel. +358-0-630 300, fax +358-0-630 414, e-mail kaisa.raitio@helsinki.fi.
ST. PETERSBURG -- THE SEMINAR "ECOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE RATIONAL USE OF WATER RESOURCES," held in early September, included the participation of several environmental experts from Ireland. St. Petersburg University and the new Center for the Quality of Water at St. Petersburg University invited the Irish experts. Dr. Arkadii Voronov of St. Petersburg University at the same time announced the official establishment of the Center for the Quality of Water. City deputies told the seminar of their intention to create new legislation for the protection of water resources in the city. (Smena, 5 Sep.)
PSKOV, RUSSIA -- AN AGREEMENT OF COOPERATION BETWEEN PSKOV TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY AND FINNISH TEACHERS from the city of Kuopio, Finland, was signed during a visit of Finns to Pskov on September 4. Cooperation between educational institutions in Pskov and Kuopio had been discussed for several years, including at an international seminar held in Kuopio in September 1994. Teacher and student exchanges will begin this year. (Novosti Pskova, 5 Sep.)
ST. PETERSBURG -- THE FESTIVAL "DAYS OF SWEDEN" was held during the first days of September. The festival included the burying of a time capsule in the foundation of the future House of Sweden, to be built in St. Petersburg, and a trade exhibition. The Swedish Minister of Trade participated in the festival. About 260 Swedish firms are registered as operating in St. Petersburg. (SPb Vedomosti, 4 Sep.)
ST. PETERSBURG-HANNOVER -- A DELEGATION OF GERMAN REPRESENTATIVES OF PRUESSEN ELEKTRA met with St. Petersburg energy experts to discuss plans for cooperation between German and Russian energy experts. The international project "Baltic Ring" is now in a stage of overall planning. The project provides for a grid of electrical stations that would provide the most rational use of existing electrical production around the Baltic Sea. (Vecher. Peterburg, 5 Sep.)
DAUGAVPILS, LATVIA -- PREPARING FOR THE WORST was the slogan of civil defense exercises held in Daugavpils on September 10 to test the system's readiness to cope with an accident at Lithuania's Ignalina nuclear power plant, which lies 5O kilometers away. In August there was a minor panic in Daugavpils after steam was released by the Ignalina plant. No radiation was released but people were not informed of the actual situation for several hours. Police, fire brigades, business people, officials, and civil defense organizations took part in the exercises, with western European observers looking on. (LETA, 11 Sep.)
ST. PETERSBURG -- A YOUTH BIO-OLYMPIAD COMPETITION was held in the city from September 5-8 within the realm of the program "Week of the Environment". The young ecologist participants of the Olympiad discussed a wide range of problems concerning the environment. The event was organized by the International Club of the Baltic-Lagoda Region. (Chas Pik, 5 Sep.)
ST PETERSBURG -- A NON-COMMERCIAL CONFERENCE FOR THE EXCHANGE of entrepreneurial experience was held on September 5-7. The conference was organized by the Netherlands Management Cooperating Program, which was organized in 1978. The program is supported by Dutch business people and the Dutch government, and has operated in Central and Estaern Europe since 1990. In 1995, the program's experts gave recommendations to 123 firms in the Russian Federation. (Delovoi Peterburg, 6 Sep.)
ST. PETERSBURG -- THE SEMINAR "INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN MANAGING WASTE AND WATER RESOURCES" was held within the realm of the program "Week of the Environment". Two main projects were discussed at the seminar. One of the projects concerns the development of a program for the proper disposal of waste by medical institutions in the city. A second project concerns the use of funds for city water protection that were provided by the Dutch Ministry of Economy. (Delovoi Peterburg, 13 Sep.)
LIEPAJA, LATVIA -- A RIBBON-CUTTING OPENING CEREMONY OF THE LIEPAJA RADAR STATION was held at Liepaja, on Latvia's Baltic coast, on September 15. The radar installation has been tested since April and is part of a cooperation program between the Swedish and Latvian Defense Ministries that will eventually see three such bases put in place in Latvia. (LETA, 15 Sep.)
HELSINKI-RIGA -- CULTURAL COOPERATION BETWEEN FINNISH AND LATVIAN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS is planned according to a new agreement on cultural exchange signed recently by the ministries of education of Finland and Latvia. According to the agreement, literature will be translated, art exhibitions and conferences will be held, and other educational exchange activities will take place. A special part of the agreement seeks to revitalize the culture of the Livonians, a Finno-Ugric people in Latvia who have only a handful of surviving native speakers left. (LETA, 11 Sep.)
RIGA -- INCREASED BALTIC-GERMAN COOPERATION was the aim of a series of meetings organized by the coordinators of Germany's Cooperation and Consultation Program and representatives from all three Baltic states. Since 1992 the German government has spent 8O million DM on the program which carries out projects in both state and private sectors. The program is flexible in that it pursues different priorities in different countries as needed. For example, the timber industry is a priority for Latvia, while agrarian development is more important to Lithuania, and the consultation program has permitted focus on those different priorities. The program was also aimed to help advise the operation of the Latvian Privatization Agency. (LETA, 15 Sep.)
VILNIUS -- THE PHARE FUND WILL BEGIN A TWO-YEAR PROGRAM OF BANKING COURSES in Lithuania. The European Union will provide more than 3 million U.S. dollars for financing of the program, which was presented on September 7 in Trakai. Similar programs already exist in Hungary, Poland, Estonia and Check Republic. Lithuanian bankers will be taught by Western European banking experts. The program aims to improve the level of the banking system in Lithuania. The PHARE program is also to provide support for study abroad for 30 persons from commercial banks and other Lithuanian financial institutions. (ELTA, 7 Sep.)
ST. PETERSBURG -- THE PRINCE OF THE NETHERLANDS AND THE MAYOR OF ST. PETERSBURG UNVEILED the statue "The Tsar Carpenter", a gift from the Netherlands to the city of St. Petersburg, at a commemoration ceremony. The statue will stand on the bank of the Neva River across from St. Petersburg University. The statue was given in honor of the 300-year anniversary of Peter the Great's visit to Holland. The first copy of the statue stood in the same location on the bank of the Neva River before its destruction in 1918. (Vecher. Peterburg, 6 Sep.)
FINLAND -- A RECENT OPINION POLL INDICATES APPROVAL BY FINNS of Finland's initial period as a member of the European Union. Seventy-one percent of those polled approved of lower food prices, 58 percent approved of the increase of export of goods to the West, and 69 percent approved of the increase in tourism to and from Finland. In contrast, only 17 percent of those polled believe that membership in the European Union has helped to lower unemployment levels in Finland. (SPb Vedomosti, 12 Sep.)
ESTONIA -- THE CIRCULATION OF ESTONIA'S LARGEST DAILY NEWSPAPERS is as follows (in thousands):
DAILIES........Week days...Weekends
Postimees.........58.5.......59.8
Eesti Paevaleht...35.6.......35.8
Sonumileht........29.0.......29.1
Parnu Postimees...17.0.......17.0
Aripaev...........14.9........14.9 (ETA, 11 Sep.)
TALLINN -- CRUISE TOURISTS REPRESENT THE LARGEST PART of all foreigners visiting Estonia. In 1995 tourists from cruise ships represented 65 percent all tourists arriving in Estonia by sea. According to Erki Urva, managing director of the tourist firm Wris, the Baltic Sea as the venue for cruise tourism is number three in importance in the world following the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. (Aripaev, 13 Sep.)