Estonia’s Minister of Culture, Heidy Purga, has been elected to the foundation board of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), ERR reports. She is the first ever Estonian on the organisation’s governing body and will represent the EU. The board has altogether 42 members.
Almost a third of consumers in Latvia still pay in cash, according to a report from financial technology platform Adyen, Labs of Latvia reports. The data showed that 29% of Latvian consumers prefer to pay in cash. Around a third of those aged 30 and those aged 60 as well as a quarter of 20-year-olds…
An Estonian volunteer fighting against Russia in Ukraine was killed in action on 25 June 2025, ERR reports. Alo Klaassepp, 25, was killed in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region near the town of Borova. He was fighting as part of the international battalion of Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade. Klaassepp, who was from Pärnu, joined the Armed Forces…
Estonia’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) checked around 2,000 bank statements without legal authority, Chancellor of Justice Ülle Madise announced, ERR reports. FIU had obtained full bank statements via the data exchange layer connected to the enforcement register, whereas the law only allows FIU access to basic information about bank accounts. FIU told ERR that it…
A court in Estonia has found two Moldovan nationals guilty of an arson attack against a Ukrainian restaurant in Tallinn in January 2025, ERR reports. The two men were arrested in Italy in February 2025. One of the defendants told prosecutors that he was tasked by persons connected to Russian military intelligence (GRU) to firebomb…
Lithuanian prosecutors accuse three foreign nationals of desecrating a monument to anti-Soviet resistance leader Adolfas Ramanauskas in January 2024 under orders from Russian military intelligence (GRU), BNS reports. The three suspects, now under custody, are two dual Estonian-Russian citizens and a Russian citizen residing in Tallinn. The group smeared the monument in the southern Lithuanian…
Latvia finally launched an early warning or cell broadcast system on 1 July 2025 after delays in the procurement process, LETA reports. The system was developed by Meditec for EUR 3.4mn under a contract with the Ministry of Interior’s Information Centre. The system will warn residents and visitors about natural disasters, military threats, or other…
Over 600 couples in Latvia have registered partnerships in one year since partnerships were recognised in legislation, LSM reports. The Register of Natural Persons contained information on altogether 613 registered partnerships as of 1 July 2025, including 235 same-sex and 378 opposite-sex partnerships. Under the law, a partnership can be entered into by two adults,…
The education inequality gap is widening between generations in Estonia, according to a new study, ERR reports. The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) test shows that education inequality is growing faster in Estonia than in other OECD countries. Inequality has deepened in terms of education, language, and especially age. Young people’s…