Latvia’s State Security Service (VDD) is investigating whether the decision of Latvian gas company Latvijas Gaze’s shareholder meeting to pay dividends to one of the company’s owners, Itera Latvija, violates EU sanctions on Russia, LETA reports, citing TV3. VDD stressed that providing financial resources to sanctioned entities, directly or indirectly, was prohibited. Latvijas Gaze insisted…
The editor-in-chief of Russian propaganda agency Sputnik’s Lithuanian edition, Marats Kasems, has fled Latvia, fearing criminal prosecution, Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, announced, LETA reports. Riga-based Russian independent news website Meduza reported that Kasems was now in Russia. Meanwhile, his Facebook page indicates that he is currently in the UK. Earlier, Kasems pled…
Residents of Bauska municipality in southern Latvia are worried about plans to build a large wind farm in Lithuania near the Skaistkalne sinkhole zone, LSM reports. Anita Rozentale, editor of the regional newspaper, Bauskas Dzive, said that the wind farm would be located only 1.2 km from the sinkhole area. There is a sinkhole zone…
The number of schools in Latvia’s capital city of Riga will be the same in the school year 2023/2024 as in the previous year, LSM reports. Riga will have altogether 101 schools. However, 7 schools will no longer have grades 10 to 12, and they will gradually become primary and secondary schools. The number of…
Seven municipalities in Latvia will participate in the Save Our Sea (SOS) campaign for a cleaner Baltic Sea, LETA reports. The municipalities of Adazi, Jurmala, Liepaja, Riga, Talsi, Valmiera, and Ventspils have applied to take part in the campaign. The SOS campaign, launched by Estonian NGO Let’s Do It World, aims to raise awareness of…
A group of MPs from Latvia’s ruling New Unity party has proposed amendments that would introduce harsher penalties for exceeding speed limits in road traffic, Baltic News Network reports. Under the proposal, the fine for driving 60 km/h or more above the speed limit would rise from the current EUR 240-460 to EUR 720-960 and…
Latvia’s State Revenue Service (VID) has published a list of the country’s 17 largest corporate taxpayers, Baltic News Network reports. VID highlighted the largest taxpayers in the large, medium, and small business segments in Latvia’s five regions. The country’s biggest taxpayer in 2022 was Polish-owned fuel trader Orlen Latvija, which paid 278.95mn in taxes. In…
Latvia has currently around 50,000 unemployed people, which is an all-time low, according to data from the State Employment Agency (NVA), LETA reports. The country’s unemployment rate now stands at 5.6%, which is down from 6.3% in the beginning of 2023. Evita Simsone, director of NVA, noted that the small number of unemployed created problems…
Latvian data centre operator DEAC and Lithuania’s Data Logistics Center (DLC) have obtained a ten-year loan of EUR 30mn from SEB Bank, The Baltic Times reports. The companies will use the funds to further expand their telecommunication infrastructure. DEAC will build a third data centre in Riga, while DLC will expand its data centres in…
