Lithuania: President rejects leaving International Criminal Court
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda assured that Lithuania was not considering withdrawing from the International Criminal…
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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: President rejects leaving International Criminal Court
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda assured that Lithuania was not considering withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC), LRT reports. He insisted that any talk of leaving the ICC was “completely difficult to comprehend.” Earlier, the US urged allied countries, including Lithuania, to withdraw or distance themselves from the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, LRT…
Latvia: Massive data leak at vehicle registration agency
A recent cyberattack against Latvia’s Road Traffic Safety Directorate (CSDD) breached the data of as many as 1.2 million people and around 200,000 companies, LETA reported. Latvia’s population totals a little over 1.8 million people, LSM noted. The attackers obtained personal and company data contained in payment receipts dating back to 2008. The compromised information…
Estonia: Justice Chancellor on path to presidency
Estonia’s national-conservative opposition party, Fatherland, will support Chancellor of Justice Ülle Madise’s candidacy for president, ERR reported. Fatherland chairman Urmas Reinsalu said that the decisive factors in the party’s decision to back Madise were her “Estonia-centred vision” and “national positions,” ERR reported. Madise’s candidacy was first proposed by the opposition Social Democratic Party, and she…
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…