The Lithuanian Migration Department (LMD) has revoked the residence permit of a Russian citizen, Vladimir Vodo, after the State Security Department (VSD) said that he posed a threat to national security, BNS reports. Vodo claims to be a journalist, yet spreads pro-Russian propaganda on social media and has contacts with Russian and Belarusian intelligence services, VSD…
Lithuania expects a plan for deploying a permanent German brigade in Lithuania to be completed by the end of September 2023, Defence Minister Arvydas Anusauskas announced, LRT reports. He said that a joint task group was now starting work on drawing up the plan. Earlier, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said that Germany expected to…
Latvia’s Ministry of Justice plans to propose amendments that would abolish conditional prison sentences, replacing them with probation, LSM reports. Anda Smiltena, deputy secretary of state at the Ministry of Justice, said that the State Probation Service’s (VPD) task would be to influence the thinking of the offender and correct their behaviour. The measures would…
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics has asked Prosecutor General Juris Stukans to explain why a Latvian citizen who provided support to Russia got away with just a fine, LSM reports. Earlier, a court found Marats Kasems, editor of Russian propaganda agency Sputnik’s Lithuanian edition, guilty of supporting Russia’s activities against Latvia and sentenced him to a…
The European Commission will refer Estonia to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for failure to transpose the European Competition Network (ECN+) Directive into national legislation, ERR reports. The ECN+ Directive enables national competition authorities to enforce EU antitrust rules more effectively by ensuring their independence, resources, and enforcement tools. EU member states were required…
Estonia’s state budget deficit is likely to be smaller than forecast in 2023, the Ministry of Finance announced, ERR reports. In the first five months of 2023, budget revenues increased more than expected due to the rapid growth of wages and rise in prices. Tax revenue was 10% higher than a year earlier. At the…
Senior officials from the Baltic states, Poland, and the European Commission met in Brussels and pledged to accelerate the synchronisation of the Baltic electricity grids with the continental European system, ERR reports. The current deadline for the synchronisation project is at the end of 2025. Timo Tatar, undersecretary of Estonia’s Ministry of Environment, said that…
Newspaper and magazine sales in Estonia fell in June 2023 compared to the same period of 2022, according to data from the Estonian Association of Media Enterprises (EML), ERR reports. Õhtuleht sold 32,000 (35,000) copies, followed by Maaleht with 31,700 (33,600), Eesti Ekspress with 19,000 (20,600), and Eesti Päevaleht with 8,600 (10,000) copies. Postimees stopped…
Estonia needs proactive legislation to restrict “harmful foreign media outlets,” in addition to sanctions imposed on Russia, Andres Jõesaar, media adviser at the Estonian Ministry of Culture, stated, ERR reports. He conceded that the recent controversial proposal by the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (TTJA) to monitor media bias was “badly worded.” However, Jõesaar…