Lithuania should not censor everything related to Russian culture, the country’s incoming culture minister, Sarunas Birutis, stated, LRT reports. Speaking in an interview with ELTA, Birutis insisted that the “Russian nation was not the same as the Kremlin.” He pointed out that Russians had been neighbours to Lithuanians “for millennia” and would continue to be…
Five schools in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, will take part in a pilot project to curb children’s use of smart devices, ERR reports. Ott Oja, head of Tallinn’s mental health action plan for children and youth, said that the city was developing the project in collaboration with researchers at Tallinn University’s Centre for Educational Psychology…
The Latvian government has approved new regulations under which transport and related infrastructure, signs, and information must be in Latvian and, if needed, in another official EU language, LSM reports. The new rules will thus preclude such signs in Russian. Justice Minister Inese Libina-Egnere said that the new rules would create a more attractive environment…
Annual alcohol consumption in Estonia amounted to 11.2 litres of pure alcohol per capita in 2022, which was down from 14.8 litres in 2007, according to a report from the National Institute for Health Development (TAI), ERR reports. The report noted that alcohol consumption declined over 2012-2018, but began rising again in 2019 after a…
Latvia approved 30 applications for investor visas and 53 dependent visas under its so-called golden visa programme in the first half of 2024, Investment Migration Insider reports. The biggest number of approved applications were submitted by Chinese (11) and Turkish (7) nationals. The EUR 50,000 business investment option accounted for 22 and real estate investments…
Lithuania has introduced stricter rules on residence permit applications through external service providers as of 1 December 2024, BNS reports. From now on, only citizens of countries with an office of the external service provider can use their services. Citizens of other countries can apply for temporary residency permits at an office in another country…
A public petition in Latvia is collecting signatures to restrict or ban US entrepreneur Elon Musk’s social media platform, X (former Twitter), in Latvia, BNS reports. The author of the legislative initiative, Gvido Grava, notes that an increasing volume of disinformation is being spread on X. He points out that X fails to comply with…
Latvia’s State Police has made the country’s largest ever drug bust near Aluksne, LETA reports. Police seized over 38,000 litres of chemical liquids used as precursors for the production of synthetic drugs. Police found more than one tonne of Clephedrone (4-CMC) with a market value of at least EUR 400mn at the illegal production facility…
Latvian municipalities have begun switching on central heating for households amid the onset of colder weather, LETA reports. Riga’s municipal housing company, Rigas Namu Parvaldnieks (RNP), began providing heating to tenants on 4 October 2024. RNP will turn off heating automatically on warmer days. The Jekabpils municipality will switch on heating in kindergartens first and…
