Estonia: Tartu-Riga train not funded in state budget strategy

The Estonian government has failed to include a project to open a regular passenger train connection between Tartu and the Latvian capital, Riga, in its long-term budget plans for 2025-2027, ERR reports. The government points to concerns about a competing Latvian proposal that would entail lower costs but less convenient departure times. Nevertheless, the government…

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Baltic: Russia declares Estonian PM, Baltic officials “wanted”

Russia has issued arrest warrants against Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Deutsche Welle reports. This is the first time that Russia has opened a criminal case against an acting foreign head of government. The Russian Interior Ministry’s full database of wanted people, which was leaked to independent Russian media outlet Mediazona, indicated that Kallas and…

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Baltic: Tallinn ranks highest on quality of life index in 2024

Estonia’s capital, Tallinn, ranked the highest in the Baltic States on Serbian database Numbeo’s Quality of Life index in 2024, BNS reported. Tallinn ranked 17th out of 195 cities worldwide. Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, ranked 36th on the index, while the Latvian capital, Riga, ranked 88th. Numbeo’s index assesses various factors affecting quality of life, including…

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Latvia: 2,000 farmers staged protest rallies in 16 cities

Around 2,000 farmers protested across Latvia against the government’s agriculture policies on 5 February 2024, according to the Farmers’ Parliament (ZSA), LSM reported. Police said that the protests passed peacefully with no significant incidents, LETA reported. Farmers staged rallies with agricultural machinery in altogether 16 cities, calling for a ban on imports of Russian and…

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