Lithuania: Border guard chief resigns after migrant attack
The commander of Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service (VSAT), Rustamas Liubajevas, has resigned, Interior Minister…
Read Less, Know More
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: Border guard chief resigns after migrant attack
The commander of Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service (VSAT), Rustamas Liubajevas, has resigned, Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas announced, LRT reports. Katelynas said that serious questions had arisen about how VSAT had handled and reported a recent violent incident involving migrants on the border with Belarus. Media reports revealed that a group of migrants had attacked…
Latvia: PM calls on EU to cover costs of confronting Russia
The EU should cover costs related to confronting Russia, Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs stated, Politico reports. He said that the EU should grant an additional EUR 7bn from its next multi-annual budget to compensate for Latvia’s higher defence spending and loss of trade with Russia. Latvia’s projected defence spending over the seven-year budget period…
Estonia: Justice Chancellor to run for president
Estonia’s Chancellor of Justice, Ülle Madise, has officially confirmed that she is running for president, ERR reports. She said that the president’s duty was to safeguard Estonia’s “people, language, culture, nature, freedom, and peace,” stressing the importance of clean nature, of culture and atmosphere, of freedom and responsibility, and of a “caring and developing state.”…
Lithuania: Culture Minister urges to stop using Russian
Lithuania’s Culture Minister, Lukas Alsys, called for a systematic shift away from the use of Russian language in public administration, BNS reported. Speaking in an interview with Ziniu Radijas, Alsys stressed that government institutions and municipalities in Lithuania communicated in the state language, Lithuanian. However, the policy of phasing out Russian should take into account…
Latvia: Government ready to buy more airBaltic bonds
The Latvian government has decided to extend the repayment period on a EUR 30mn emergency loan issued to the country’s national airline, airBaltic, until the end of 2026, LSM reports. The loan was due by the end of August 2026. Also, the government gave conceptual approval to buying an additional EUR 30mn of airBaltic’s bonds…
Estonia: Right-Wingers re-elect Lavly Perling as party leader
Estonia’s non-parliamentary opposition party, Right-Wingers, has re-elected Lavly Perling as its chairwoman, ERR reported. She was the only candidate to the post. In her acceptance speech, Perling said that “painful decisions” were needed for Estonia not to lose the right to make decisions over its state finances. She insisted that state spending be frozen and…
Lithuania: Conservatives submit deal on demographics
Lithuania’s conservative opposition Homeland Union has submitted to parliament a draft national agreement on demographics for 2026-2040, ELTA reports. The proposal would expand state support for first-time homebuyers, strengthen family policy and access to services, improve work-life balance, and encourage the return of Lithuanian emigrants. Earlier, Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius proposed a cross-party agreement on…
Latvia: PM plays down need to exit Istanbul Convention
Latvia’s United List continues to oppose the ratification of the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention on violence against women, but is not committed to withdrawing from the treaty immediately, Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs stated, LETA reports. He said that the question should not be made into a top political priority, given that the treaty had…
Estonia: Estonians 68% of population in 2026: statistics
Estonia’s population totalled 1,360,745 people in the beginning of 2026, according to Statistics Estonia, ERR reported. The number of ethnic Estonians amounted to 932,603 people (68.5%) and Russians to 276,125 people (20.2%) of the total population. People of other ethnic nationalities numbered 146,619 (10.8%), including 75,250 (5.5%) Ukrainians, 11,477 Belarusians, 8,059 Finns, and 4,272 Latvians….