Over half of Latvian municipalities have new mayors following local elections on 7 June 2025, LETA reports. Municipal councils elected altogether 22 new chairpersons, while 20 incumbent mayors remained in office. Political groups that received the most votes failed to secure the mayorship in 12 municipalities, including in Riga, Jelgava, and Ventspils. In some municipalities,…
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys called for a “strong and decisive” response to attacks on critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, BNS reports. Speaking during a meeting with Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics in Riga, Budrys urged to expand NATO patrols, impose sanctions on Russia’s shadow fleet, and revise navigation rules in the Baltic Sea. Meanwhile,…
Estonia’s state-owned passenger train operator, Eesti Liinirongid (Elron), plans to open a direct train connection between Tartu in southern Estonia and the Latvian capital, Riga, in summer 2025, BNS reports. Elron will soon begin test runs between Valga and Riga. CEO Lauri Betlem said that the authorisation of trains in Latvia had taken much longer…
Latvia’s national airline, airBaltic, has announced that it will cancel flights on 19 routes and reduce flights on 21 routes in summer 2025 due to engine maintenance, LSM reports. The company will cancel flights from Riga to Aberdeen, Belgrade, Cluj-Napoca, Gothenburg, Mykonos, Pristina, Rzeszów, Skopje, Stavanger, and Yerevan. Also, the company will cancel flights from…
The Latvian capital, Riga, may propose legislation to ban New Year fireworks at Moscow time, which is one hour ahead of Latvian time, LSM reports. Deputy mayor Edvards Ratnieks noted that current law made it difficult to prove that Moscow-time fireworks amounted to glorification of the aggressor state, which is illegal under criminal law in…
The passenger train operators of the three Baltic States will open an easier connection from Tallinn via Tartu and Riga to Vilnius on 6 January 2025, BNS reports, citing Vooremaa. The new connection harmonises carrier timetables and will include two transfers. The whole journey from Tallinn to Vilnius will take around 10.5 hours in total,…
Most Latvians think that the quality of life in Latvia became worse in 2024, according to a new SKDS poll for LTV, LSM reports. The survey showed that 30.3% of Latvian residents believed that the quality of life deteriorated slightly in 2024, while 11.7% said that the quality of life worsened significantly compared to 2023….
Latvia’s national air carrier, airBaltic, will cancel altogether 4,670 flights in summer 2025, LSM reports. The company will suspend flights on 19 routes and cut the number of flights on 21 routes. The cancellations will affect around 67,160 passengers. The company said that US manufacturer Pratt & Whitney’s engine maintenance work on the airline’s Airbus…
The passenger train operators of the three Baltic states will begin coordinating their timetables to enable a smooth connection between the Baltic capitals, LSM reports. Estonia’s Elron, Latvia’s Vivi, and Lithuania’s LTG Link plan to align the timetables as of 6 January 2025. Transfer times at Valga and Riga will be around 10-20 minutes. The…
