Lithuania: Foreign Minister rejects run for president
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister, Kestutis Budrys, has assured Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius that he has no…
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Welcome to Via Baltica, your “information superhighway” for news from the three Baltic tigers of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania! Our founder and editor-in-chief is Kerkko Paananen, senior news analyst with more than two decades of professional expertise in covering and reporting on current affairs in the Baltic States. We aim to do one thing well:…
Lithuania: Foreign Minister rejects run for president
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister, Kestutis Budrys, has assured Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius that he has no intention to run for president, ELTA reports. Speaking in an interview with 15min, Budrys said that public speculation about his possible presidential bid had made both his work and his life more difficult, casting a shadow on his ministerial actions…
Latvia: Early voting surge in parliamentary elections
More than 11% of Latvia’s electorate voted early in the country’s parliamentary elections, which was up sharply from just over 4% in the previous elections in 2022, according to data from the Central Election Commission (CVK), LSM reported. The official election day is 3 October 2026. Early voter turnout was highest in the Vidzeme region…
Estonia: Opposition leader urges more budget cuts
The chairman of Estonia’s national-conservative opposition party, Fatherland, Urmas Reinsalu, signalled major changes in economic policy after the parliamentary elections in March 2027, ERR reports. He said that the current government had failed to manage state finances and argued that government operating costs should have been cut more. Fatherland’s first task therefore was to fix…
Baltic: Baltics not invited to NATO working group
The US failed to invite several NATO allies, including the three Baltic States, to a working group meeting in Poland to discuss the future of the alliance, Politico reported. Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal confirmed that Estonia had not received an invitation, but stressed that the gathering was not an official NATO meeting, ERR reported. Defence…
Lithuania: Catholic Church to investigate child sexual abuse
The Lithuanian Catholic Church will investigate sexual abuse of children since 1990, LRT reports. The Lithuanian Bishops’ Conference (LVK) decided to launch the investigation into crimes against minors and vulnerable adults within the church after two Lithuanian priests were charged for sexual offenses involving children. Church officials are waiting for guidance from the Holy See…
Latvia: Parliament bans Russian, Belarusian food
The Latvian parliament, the Saeima, has expanded an existing ban on the import of food from Russia and Belarus, LSM reports. The parliament passed in final reading urgent amendments that will ban the import of not just agricultural goods and animal feed but also food products of Russian and Belarusian origin. The ban will apply…
Estonia: Ban on grain transit from Russia, Belarus
The Estonian government has banned transit shipments of grain from Russia and Belarus, ERR reports. Amid attacks on shipping in the Black Sea, Russia has diverted grain exports away from Black Sea ports to other ports, including on the Baltic Sea coast. Russia and Belarus have not used Estonian ports to export grain to third…
Baltic: Business boom in Lithuania, doom in Estonia in 2024
The share of new businesses registered in proportion to the number of active enterprises in Lithuania was the highest in the entire EU in 2024, according to Eurostat data, LSM reports. Lithuania’s so-called enterprise birth rate stood at 17.5% in 2024, compared to 13.9% in Latvia and 12.1% in Estonia. The EU average was 10.4%….
Estonia: Ülle Madise elected president
The Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu, has elected Chancellor of Justice Ülle Madise as the country’s next president for a five-year term, ERR reports. Madise received 71 votes in the first round of voting in the 101-member parliament. She was the only candidate. MPs of the opposition Estonian Centre Party and Conservative People’s Party of Estonia…