The Estonian rare earths processor, NPM Silmet, plans to stop using raw materials from Russia’s state-owned Solikamsk Magnesium Works (SMZ) by the end of 2026, ERR reports. NPM Silmet said that it would have to reduce production at its plant in Sillamäe as a result. The company is still waiting for a final shipment from…
The Baltic States called on the EU to ban transit shipments of Russian grain through EU territory, BNS reported. Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal, Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs, and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda made the call in a joint letter to European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen….
Baltic leaders criticised the US-Russian agreement on Russian diesel fuel supplies. Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal said that the agreement was a “major miscalculation,” warning that “deals with dictators are a road to hell,” ERR reported. He insisted that Russian revenues must be stopped and urged the EU to help Ukraine “blast Russia’s oil refineries…
Lithuania’s Interior Minister, Martynas Katelynas, has asked Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas to deploy troops to the country’s border with Russia’s Kaliningrad region, BNS reports. Katelynas said that the troop deployment was a preventive measure in response to an armed incident on Latvia’s border with Belarus. Speaking in an interview with Die Welt, Prime Minister Mindaugas…
The number of Russian citizens with valid residence permits declined in all three Baltic States in 2025, according to Eurostat data, Meduza reports. Since 2016, their number has fallen every year in Estonia and Latvia, but rose in Lithuania from 2019 to 2023. Estonia had 78,377 Russians with residence permits at the end of 2025,…
Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs and his United List alliance may win the country’s parliamentary elections by a landslide, according to pollster SKDS’s exit poll, LSM reports. The poll shows that United List may win 35.6% of the votes, far ahead of all other parties. The far-right populist Latvia First would be second with 11.3%,…
More than 11% of Latvia’s electorate voted early in the country’s parliamentary elections, which was up sharply from just over 4% in the previous elections in 2022, according to data from the Central Election Commission (CVK), LSM reported. The official election day is 3 October 2026. Early voter turnout was highest in the Vidzeme region…
The Estonian government has banned transit shipments of grain from Russia and Belarus, ERR reports. Amid attacks on shipping in the Black Sea, Russia has diverted grain exports away from Black Sea ports to other ports, including on the Baltic Sea coast. Russia and Belarus have not used Estonian ports to export grain to third…
The director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), John Ratcliffe, travelled to Moscow to warn Russia against attacking NATO countries, particularly the Baltic States, CBS, Politico, and The Wall Street Journal reported. Earlier, US intelligence assessed that Russia was considering attacks in the Baltic region to test NATO unity. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman,…
