Four people have been arrested in Estonia on suspicion of large-scale health care fraud in the US, ERR reports, citing The Washington Post. The case involves nearly two dozen suspects from Estonia, Kazakhstan, and Russia. The group allegedly submitted fraudulent Medicare health insurance claims totalling around EUR 8.5bn for medical devices that were never delivered…
The Lithuanian government has approved the Energy Ministry’s proposal to assess the potential for developing nuclear energy capacity in the country, BNS reports. The ministry will set up a special working group to assess the possible establishment of small modular nuclear reactors with a capacity of 1.5 GW. Lithuania’s electricity demand is estimated to reach…
Latvia’s gross energy consumption remained stable in 2024, according to provisional data from the Central Statistical Bureau (CSP), LSM reports. Gross energy consumption totalled 183 PJ, which was 1 PJ less than in 2023. Final energy consumption totalled 166 PJ, which was down 0.8% on year. Transport accounted for 47 PJ (28.4%) of final consumption,…
Renewable energy accounted for 73% of the total volume of electricity generated in Latvia in 2024, according to provisional data from the Central Statistical Bureau (CSP), LSM reports. The volume of electricity produced from renewable sources totalled 4,643 GWh in 2024. Hydro, wind, and solar power plants generated a total of 4,022 GWh of electricity…
The Estonian Reform Party and the Estonian Centre Party (Keskerakond) will topple Tallinn’s current city government next week, incumbent mayor Jevgeni Ossinovski of the Social Democratic Party (SDE) said, ERR reports. He accused Reform’s mayoral candidate, businessman Urmas Sõõrumaa, of holding token talks with other parties to obscure the party’s plan to form a new…
Israel’s Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar, met with his Latvian and Lithuanian counterparts on a working visit to Riga and Vilnius, LSM reports. The foreign ministers discussed bilateral cooperation, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the situation in the Middle East. Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze expressed hope for more permanent solutions in Israel’s relations with Lebanon…
Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service (VSAT) has reported a sharp rise in secondary migration via Latvia, BNS reports. Altogether 352 irregular migrants who entered Latvia from Belarus were detained in Lithuania and Poland in the first half of 2025, which was up 2.5 times from 140 in the same period of 2024. Most of the…
Over half of Latvian municipalities have new mayors following local elections on 7 June 2025, LETA reports. Municipal councils elected altogether 22 new chairpersons, while 20 incumbent mayors remained in office. Political groups that received the most votes failed to secure the mayorship in 12 municipalities, including in Riga, Jelgava, and Ventspils. In some municipalities,…
The Estonian Reform Party’s candidate for mayor of Tallinn, businessman Urmas Sõõrumaa, wants to form a technocratic city government with no executive politicians, like in Helsinki, ERR reports. At the same time, he said that the new city government would follow guidelines from Reform and the Estonian Centre Party. He insisted that the city had…