Before we get to the usual features, most of you (in the U.S.) by now have probably received your census forms. In contrast to prior versions, you have control over how you report yourself. For those of any particular ethnic background, especially the Baltics, now is the chance to stand up and be counted. When Peters was growing up, he always checked "Other" on the racial background standardized test box and neatly penciled in "LATVIAN". Now is his, our, your chance to do the same. Instead of those neat boxes of which you could only choose one, now you can check multiple boxes...or... at the very end of the "Person's race" question, you can say EXACTLY who you are!

So, whether Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian, or any other "race"... (and it was recently reported that a distinctive chromosome difference shows the Irish can scientifically be considered a separate "race")... it's time to stand up and be counted. Not white, not black, not any color, but—for us—"LATVIAN!"

This week's link is another university resource page with lots of pointer pages.

In the news,

• Ulmanis may meet with Yeltsin, after all, it can't get much worse
• Trial opened of extremist Latvians accused of plotting bombings
• Russia to complain about Latvia in particular at U.N. Commission for Human Rights
• Latvian government prepared if Duma imposes sanctions
• Russia warns Latvia relations have deteriorated to "danger point" (and exactly who has been instigating here?)
• Likely Putin election seen as positive for Baltics
• Russian presidential candidate suggests boycotting Latvian trade and trade routes and that [Latvia] seize empty factories for debt payment and provide jobs for Russians
• Russia to provide more "support" for Russians abroad, particularly ex-CIS countries
• Russia indignant that some Latvians want to make June 17th, the day the Soviet Union occupied Latvia, an official memorial day

Finally, this week's picture is of the Rumbas falls in Kuldiga.

IN ACCORDANCE WITH AOL'S MAIL POLICY and good manners, please let Silvija (Silvija) know if you wish to be deleted from our mailing list. Past mailers are archived at latvians.com. Your comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Latvian Link

This week's link is another university page pointing to lots of web resources related to Latvia:

The Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies
The University of Texas at Austin - Web Pages
REENIC-Russian and East European Network Information Center

Link:	Latvia
URL:	http://reenic.utexas.edu/reenic/Countries/Latvia/latvia.html

News

    RIGA, March 18 (Itar-Tass) - Former Latvian president Guntis Ulmanis said he would "gladly meet Boris Yeltsin".
    Ulmanis has recently visited the United States and realised there that "people who have been in high politics and left it in a dignified way are treated with a lot of trust, like a 'barometer'".
    During his presidency, Ulmanis repeatedly announced his intention to hold such a meeting. Now that both leaders no longer hold their offices and relations between the two countries "can't be worse", they believe their meeting and exchange of views could be very useful.
     zak/Copyright 2000
    
    RIGA, March 20 (Itar-Tass) - Latvian court on Monday opened the trial of several members of an extremist group indicted of attempts of bomb attacks and of assassinations.
    Nine people in the dock are members of the organisation Perkonkrusts (Cross of Thunder), whose emblem is a swastika.
     Their leader Juris Rec is on the wanted list. Two members of the group perished in June of 1997 as they attempted to blast a monument to liberators of Latvia from Nazism.
    According to law enforcement bodies, the group had repeatedly tried to blast a heat main and the building of Latvenergo company in Riga.
     Charges are destruction of property, manufacture of incendiary and explosive substances, physical assaults of people, hostage-taking, calls for overturning power and instigation of ethnic hatred.
    The group also planned assassinations of officials, including Anatolijs Gorbunovs, communications minister and former member of parliament.
    Some of the group's members served in a voluntary force with the Latvian army.
     lyu/gor Copyright 2000
    
    GENEVA, March 20 (Itar-Tass) - Russia intends to present a report on human rights in Latvia at the 56th session of the U.N. Commission for Human Rights under way in Geneva.
    The Russian delegation will attract the session participants' attention to the violation of human rights in Baltic countries, in particular in Latvia, Russian permanent representative to the European U.N. headquarters Vasily Sidorov told Itar-Tass on Monday.
    "It is natural we rivet the session's attention to the restoration of fascist ideology and attempts to rehabilitate Nazis, who organised the war against the anti-Hitler coalition," the ambassador said.
     Russia believes that it is inadmissible to pursue the policy of double standards in the field of human rights. "Unfortunately, the whole situation in these countries, in particular in Latvia, is a clear image of double standards. Somebody in the West would like to ignore the tragic events in Baltic countries," Sidorov said.
    At previous session, Russia had riveted the international community's attention to the unfavourable situation in Latvia and Estonia and the violation of human rights in these republics. The international community criticised their policy on discrimination of ethnic Russians in the republics.
    yur/Copyright 2000
    
    RIGA, March 21 (Reuters) - Latvia's government said on Tuesday it had drafted a diplomatic action plan for the event that Russia imposed economic sanctions against the Baltic state, as Moscow parliamentarians are now considering.
     In November, The Russian Duma (lower house) approved in second reading a bill that would oblige the Russian government, companies and individuals to halt all trade with Latvia over alleged discrimination against its Russian-speaking minority.
    Latvian media reported that the Duma would hold a final vote on March 29, three days after the presidential election which current acting head of state Vladimir Putin is favoured to win.
    "We have our ideas, call it a diplomatic plan, of how to react if the developments prove to be negative," Maris Riekstins, Latvian Foreign Ministry secretary of state, told Reuters.
     He declined to discuss the contents of the plan, which he said was purely diplomatic in nature and would be implemented if a sanctions bill were approved by Russia's president.
    "We are watching the sanctions debate closely, but we understand that both the cabinet and presidential administration are of the opinion that economic sanctions against Latvia would be counterproductive to Russia itself," Riekstins said.
    Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov took a cautious line on the possibility of sanctions on Tuesday.
    "We consider that for the time being it is necessary to use political methods," Itar Tass news agency quoted him as saying in Moscow.
    Russia's upper house Federation Council as well as the president would have to approve the sanctions bill.
     Moscow accuses Riga of discriminating against Russian speakers, an issue that has soured relations between the two countries since Latvia left the former Soviet Union in 1991.
    Earlier on Tuesday Russia said it was urging international bodies to pressure Latvia over its conviction of an elderly World War Two partisan.
    Latvia sentenced 77-year-old Vasili Kononov to six years in jail for killing nine civilians in 1944, outraging the Russian authorities and Russian veterans' organisations.
    Russia has accused Latvia of punishing fighters against Nazi Germany while allowing Latvian veterans of Waffen SS units to hold parades. Latvia says it has the right to punish anyone who committed war crimes, no matter which side they fought on.
    Copyright 2000 Reuters Ltd.
    
    RIGA, March 22 (Reuters) - Russia warned neighbouring Latvia on Wednesday that deteriorating relations are at a danger point.
    "We are concerned with the relationship between Latvia and Russia," Alexander Udaltsov, Russia's Ambassador to Latvia, told journalists after meeting with Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga.
    "I told the (Latvian) president relations have reached a dangerous stage when the negative trend gathers momentum that may be difficult to halt," he added.
     Relations between Moscow and Riga have been tense at best since the former Soviet republic regained independence in 1991.
    Russia accuses Latvia of discrimination against its large Russian-speaking minority — roughly one-third of its 2.4 million citizens — most of whom moved here during 50 years of communist rule.
    Relations sagged further when Latvia convicted 77-year-old Vasili Kononov killing civilians in 1944, when he was a Soviet partisan fighting Nazi Germany occupation.
    Deputies in Moscow are currently considering imposing economic sanctions against Latvia for the perceived mistreatment of Russian speakers. A decision on the sanctions is expected by the end of March.
    Udaltsov said he did not favour the sanctions and that the two countries must look to the future to avoid becoming enslaved by the past.
    Latvia has called the sanctions bill regrettable.
    Russia still holds considerable influence over the Latvian economy through natural resources and transit trade which accounts for some 15 percent of gross domestic product.
    
    By Alan Crosby
    RIGA, March 24 (Reuters) - Strained relations between the Baltic states and Russia are set to improve if Vladimir Putin is elected president this Sunday, even if his long-term policies remain unclear. Since regaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have often squabbled with Moscow, which has complained bitterly about the treatment of the region's large Russian-speaking minority.
    The rhetoric has hit fever pitch in the run-up to the vote as candidates have postured to strike a nationalist chord — but is more than likely to subside once the election is over.
    "In Russian foreign policy there have been no turning points since 1917. Interpretations have changed, the terms being used have changed, but the policy, foreign policy, is just the same...Russian foreign policy has taught us that it gets more aggressive as elections approach," said Latvian plitical scientist Zanete Ozolina.
    Baltic capital markets have been quiet in the days ahead of the vote and analysts say a decisive win for Putin, acting president since January, could calm fears of instability and bring a fresh wave of investment.
    "We think the election will bring a more predictable, consistent and dynamic relationship...that the new Russian president will pursue a relationship built on cooperation with all Western countries, including its immediate neighbours," Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas said.
    Putin, the hot favourite to win the election, protested strongly last month when 77-year-old former Soviet partisan Vasili Kononov was convicted in Latvia for the murder of nine civilians in 1944, and even offered him Russian citizenship.
    But Putin has said he does not favour an economic sanctions bill against Latvia currently before the Russian parliament. Latvia has the largest Russian-speaking minority in the region at some 650,000.
    Across the Baltics, some 131,000 Russian residents can vote on Sunday, and opinion polls indicate most will vote for Putin.
    But many Balts have longer term worries about the former KGB spy, unknown on the political stage less than a year ago, who says he backs economic reforms but has not published an election manifesto or economic programme.
    "Putin is unpredictable for the whole world at the moment. It's a big risk to forecast anything in Russia more than half a year ahead," said Kristiina Ojuland, a member of the Estonian parliament's foreign affairs committee.
    "It seems to me...that Putin has an interest in the Baltic states. The big question mark is how this interest will develop, whether it moves in a direction where (Russia) is willing to build up normal economic relations."
    Copyright 2000 Reuters Ltd.
    
    KEMEROVO, March 24 (Itar-Tass) - The protection of Russian speakers in the former Soviet republics must become a day-to-day concern for the Russian state with a view to preventing degrading and humiliating treatment of the compatriots living there, governor of the Kemerovo region Aman Tuleyev declared on Friday.
    Tuleyev said such treatment of the Russian speakers has been practiced in Latvia "with its marches of fascists and the imprisonment of Soviet partisans."
    Tuleyev, one of the Russian presidential candidates, was speaking during the course of his meeting with voters in Kemerovo, West Siberia.
    He said one of the measures counteracting the humiliation of veterans and non-citizens is the use by Russians of the transport, including marine, routes which circumvent Latvia. He proposed "seizing oil and gas pipelines, factories and plants in the former Soviet republics for debts and provide jobs at them for the Russian-speaking population."
     vfp/Copyright 2000
    
    By Gareth Jones
    MOSCOW, March 24 (Reuters) - Russia's advisory Security Council approved a new foreign policy concept on Friday that calls for stronger protection of Russian citizens abroad and for a more commercially-oriented diplomacy.
    Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, speaking to reporters after the council session chaired by Acting President Vladimir Putin, said the doctrine reflected Russia's resources and needs better than a version drawn up in 1993.
    "The new concept is closer to life and to those tasks which we are trying to resolve within the country," he said in televised comments.
    Ivanov gave no details but Putin made clear the concept included looking after the interests of Russians living abroad, especially in the former Soviet republics of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the three Baltic states.
    "We have to defend in a more attentive, balanced but also more active way the interests of our citizens...who have chosen to live permanently in other countries," Putin said.
    It is a common complaint of Russian nationalists that Russians stranded in the Baltic states, Ukraine, the Caucasus region and Central Asia after the break-up of the Soviet Union have faced varying degrees of discrimination and mistreatment.
    Putin, hot favourite to win Sunday's presidential poll, has said he wants to strengthen Moscow's ties with the 12 ex-Soviet republics which make up the loose Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The three Baltic republics — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — are not CIS members.
    Protection for Russians Abroad
    Sergei Ivanov, secretary of the Security Council and a close ally of Putin, said ethnic Russians should feel "comfortable" in their chosen home and not want to rush back to the motherland.
    "We must create through our policies such conditions...that people, our compatriots, would want to stay put, to work normally and to live comfortably," he said.
    The concept envisages the foreign ministry taking a coordinating role in promoting Russia's interests abroad. It also proposes that diplomats do more to help promote Russian industry and commerce.
    "The role of the foreign ministry must be raised. We need actively to use the foreign ministry's opportunities to promote the economic interests of our state overseas," Itar-Tass news agency quoted Putin as saying.
    Foreign Minister Ivanov said Russia had the means to remain a key player in the international arena despite its current economic difficulties.
    "We take into account the possibilities and resources which our foreign policy has and, although they are to some degree temporarily constrained, they are enough to maintain a worthy place for Russia in the outside world," Ivanov said.
    The new foreign policy concept comes on the heels of a national security doctrine, adopted in January, that in effect lowered the threshold for Russia using nuclear arms in response to non-nuclear threats. That was followed by a nuts-and-bolts military doctrine which gave domestic concerns priority over foreign affairs.
    Copyright 2000 Reuters Ltd.
    
    MOSCOW, March 24 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian Foreign Ministry's information and press department circulated a statement on Friday.
    "On March 23 the Latvian parliament supported an initiative of right-wing nationalists to have a new memorial date on the national calendar — June 17 — as the day of Latvia's occupation by Soviet troops. When speaking of the occupation of Latvia by Soviet troops, the Latvian leaders openly hint on Russia," the statement reads.
    Several days ago the Latvian foreign minister accused Russia of using any pretext for "even more complicating our relations," it notes. "That is, really, to lay the blame on someone else."
    "At first anti-Russian laws on citizenship, education and language are adopted, then an unprecedented campaign of persecution of anti-Fascist veterans is launched, and, finally, another ceremonious march of SS survivors is held in central Riga," the statement says. "Mr. Minister seems to believe that all that will help to improve the Russo-Latvian relations. Now we are having another anti-Russian provocation."
    yer/fil Copyright 2000

Picture Album

The Venta flowing over the Rumbas, Latvia's widest waterfall.