Latvia’s state-owned airline, airBaltic, will open flights on several new routes from the Baltic States and Finland in winter 2023/2024 and summer 2024. The company will open flights from the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, to Gran Canaria and Tenerife in Spain, Turin in Italy, and Dubai in the UAE in October 2023, LRT reports. In summer…
UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has added the old town of the western Latvian city of Kuldiga and the modernist architecture of Lithuania’s second-largest city, Kaunas, to the list of World Heritage Sites. Kuldiga sought the designation for more than 20 years, LSM reported. Parts of the city’s historical centre date back to the 13th century….
Teachers in Lithuania are staging a two-hour warning strike on 15 September 2023, BNS reports. The Lithuanian Education Employees Trade Union (LSDPS) expects around 5,000 teachers and other staff in 228 educational establishments to join the strike. The union demands a 20% increase in wages as of September 2023 and a further 30% rise from…
The Russian NGO, Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), which was founded by jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, has asked the Baltic States to reconsider a ban on cars with Russian licence plates, LRT reports. FBK chairwoman Maria Pevchikh published letters that the organisation sent to Baltic governments, arguing that the ban undermined and discredited sanctions against…
Lithuania’s decision to distance from China and forge closer ties with Taiwan is one of the government’s most influential foreign policy initiatives, LRT reports. The move is part of Lithuania’s “values-based foreign policy,” which touts the country as a “freedom-loving outpost” in an increasingly authoritarian region. At the same time, officials admitted that the move…
Lithuania’s Ministry of Interior will ask the parliament, the Seimas, to extend the validity of foreigner’s passports from one to three years, BNS reports. The Lithuanian Migration Department (LMD) issues foreigner’s passports to foreign nationals with Lithuanian residency who are unable to obtain a travel document from their country of origin. The Belarusian government has…
The Baltic States have banned motor vehicles with Russian license plates from entering, ERR reports. Earlier, the European Commission issued new guidelines on EU sanctions, according to which cars registered in Russia are not allowed to enter EU territory. The ban applies to the entry of both commercial and private vehicles through the borders with…
Lithuania plans to complete the construction of a National Concert Hall in Vilnius in 2030, the capital city’s mayor, Valdas Benkunskas, announced, BNS reports. Benkunskas expects a contract on the project to be signed in spring 2024. The Ministry of Culture estimated that the total cost of the project will amount to around EUR 121mn….
Latvia’s State Border Guard (VRS) has asked the government to close the Silene checkpoint on the country’s border with Belarus due to a sudden surge in illegal border crossings in recent weeks, LSM reports. Latvia has two checkpoints on the Belarus border at Silene and Patarnieki. The Latvian National Armed Forces (NBS), the State Police,…