Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland are discussing the possibility of closing their borders with Belarus completely, Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite announced, BNS reports. Bilotaite said that the final details of a “synchronous regional decision” would be worked out at talks in Warsaw on 28 August 2023. Earlier, the Lithuanian government closed two checkpoints on the…
Estonia’s Minister of Justice, Kalle Laanet (Reform), has proposed that citizens of “aggressor states” be deprived of the right to vote in local elections in Estonia, ERR reports. The ban would apply to nearly 69,000 Russian and Belarusian citizens who are permanent residents in Estonia. The voter turnout in Estonia’s previous municipal elections in October…
Lithuania will close two of its six border checkpoints with Belarus following the arrival of Russian private military company Wagner Group’s mercenaries in Belarus, Deputy Interior Minister Arnoldas Abramavicius announced, BNS reports. He said that the plan was to close the Sumskas and Tverecius border checkpoints. Saulius Nekrasevicius, deputy director of the State Border Guard…
A man serving a sentence for attempted murder escaped from Latvia’s Riga Central Prison on 23 July 2023 but was caught within a few hours, LSM reports. Police launched an extensive search for the convict across the country, limiting the movement of persons and searching vehicles leaving Riga. Interior Minister Maris Kucinskis said that road…
Latvia’s Minister of Interior, Maris Kucinskis, has added three owners of the Ventspils-based confectionery producer, Pobeda Confectionery, to the list of foreigners banned from entering the country due to national security concerns, Baltic News Network reports. In March 2023, Latvia’s State Security Service (VDD) found that Russian confectionery producer Pobeda, which has the same owners…
Due to a budgeting mistake, Estonia’s Ministry of Education and Research will have insufficient funds to finance the transition to Estonian-language education in Russian-language schools in 2024 and beyond, ERR reports. The former government allocated the same amount of funds (EUR 41mn) for switching to Estonian-language tuition for each year in 2024-2026 as for September-December…
Estonian MEP Yana Toom of the Estonian Centre Party (Keskerakond) visited Russia to meet with pro-Russia activist Zoja Paljamar, who was barred from entering Estonia for security reasons, ERR reports. Toom said that she was visiting her sister in Russia. “Perhaps someone also has a relative in North Korea, too,” she explained. Toom announced on…