Lithuania: Prosecutors probe public broadcaster over covert recordings
The Prosecutor General’s Office of Lithuania (LGP) has asked the country’s public broadcaster, Lithuanian National…
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:…
The Prosecutor General’s Office of Lithuania (LGP) has asked the country’s public broadcaster, Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT), to explain its conduct of journalistic investigations, LRT reports. LGP sent a detailed list of 15 questions to LRT’s director general, Monika Garbaciauskaite-Budriene, asking how the company regulated secret recordings internally. The questions relate to an…
Latvia’s ailing national airline, airBaltic, will stop flights from Riga to Innsbruck altogether, suspend flights to Bucharest, Budapest, Oulu, and Sofia, and reduce flights to Copenhagen, Madeira, Munich, Oslo, Prague, and Vienna in the winter season of 2026/2027, LETA reports. Earlier, the airline announced that it would suspend flights on more than ten other routes….
Estonia’s former chancellor of justice, Ülle Madise, was sworn in as the country’s new president in the parliament, the Riigikogu, on 12 October 2026, ERR reports. She was elected to the office by the 101-member parliament with 71 votes on 2 September 2026. In her first speech as president, Madise noted that past attempts to…
Lithuania’s Interior Minister, Martynas Katelynas, has asked Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas to deploy troops to the country’s border with Russia’s Kaliningrad region, BNS reports. Katelynas said that the troop deployment was a preventive measure in response to an armed incident on Latvia’s border with Belarus. Speaking in an interview with Die Welt, Prime Minister Mindaugas…
The founder and chairman of Lithuanian property developer Hanner, Arvydas Avulis, is the country’s most influential business person, according to two new polls, BNS reports. Avulis ranked highest in surveys of both the country’s professional elite and general public. Combining the two polls, 51.6% of respondents ranked Avulis first. Dainius Dundulis, founder and owner of…
Armed men attempted to push a group of at least 20 migrants to cross the border from Belarus into Latvia illegally on 5 October 2026, according to the Latvian National Armed Forces (NBS), LETA reported. NBS soldiers prevented the attempt, which it said was particularly demonstrative and aggressive. During the incident, the masked armed men…
Estonia’s annual GDP growth will reach around 2.5% in 2026, 2027, and 2028, the Bank of Estonia forecasts, Estonian World reports. The country’s economic recovery is driven by increased household consumption following tax changes, higher government spending financed by borrowing, and stronger manufacturing exports. The central bank urged to boost productivity and competitiveness. The biggest…
Housing prices in the Baltic States rose the most in Lithuania in the second quarter of 2026, according to Eurostat data, BNS reported. Compared to the second quarter of 2025, housing prices in Lithuania rose by 14.3%, which was the third-largest increase in the EU. In Latvia, housing prices went up by 11.4% and in…
US President Donald Trump will consider establishing a permanent US military base in Lithuania, LRT reports. Earlier, Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius announced that Lithuania was prepared to cover the costs of permanent US military presence in the country. He welcomed Trump’s response to the proposal, saying that US troop presence in Lithuania was a…