Sunday, 22 August 1999
August 22, 1999 |
Latvian chat Sunday 8/22 Date: 8/22/99 2:17:24 PM Eastern Daylight
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To: PetersJV
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Sveiki!
Greetings from beautiful NYC! A little late on the mailer this week, but at
least we're actually getting it out before Lat chat! Speaking of which, hope to
see many of you on there starting around 9pm EST. You can use the following
link to join in:
Town Square -
Latvian chat. This week's picture is the bridge that runs from Vecriga
to Brivibas piemineklis ( in the park ). Also attached are two articles for
your reading pleasure: one is actually about Lithuania, but considering the
subject matter, contains information that all of us will probably find
interesting ( and scary ).
Hope to see many of you on the chat....ar visu
labu....Silvija un Peters
Copyright 1999 Reuters
Ltd. All rights reserved.
By Martinsh Gravitis
RIGA, Aug 16 (Reuters) -
Latvia's month-old coalition government seems already to be showing signs of
strain as an old dispute over privatisation has come back to haunt it,
according to political analysts and the domestic media.
In a series of
speculative articles published on Monday, local newspapers said a row over how
to privatise Latvian Shipping could even bring down the government of Prime
Minster Andris Shkele.
The main Russian-language business newspaper Bizness
i Baltija led Monday's front page with the headline "Games surrounding Shipping
could lead to the government falling apart."
The speculation emerged after
former Prime Minister Vilis Krishtopans said in a television interview at the
weekend that the Latvian Shipping dispute had played a pivotal role in the
downfall of his government last month.
Analysts say Shkele could fall prey
to the same special interest groups, key backers of the main political parties,
who have stymied the privatisation of Latvian Shipping and other firms and whom
they blame for unravelling Krishtopans' government.
"The most vivid
contradictions have surfaced in the (cabinet) vote on Latvian Shipping
privatisation guidelines, pointing to differing party interests," the newspaper
Diena said.
Latvia is eager to privatise the shipping company and several
other firms this year and next to fill a hole in the budget caused by an
economic recession.
Besides Latvian Shipping, shares in telecoms firm
Lattelekom, electric utility Latvenergo, Latvian Gas and oil terminal Ventspils
Nafta are expected to go on the block at some point.
Political wrangling
has largely kept the sales on ice.
In one month in office, Shkele's cabinet
has already had to postpone a decision on Latvian Shipping three times due to a
dispute between Economy Minister Vladimirs Makarovs, of the nationalist
Fatherland and Freedom party, and privatisation chief Janis Naglis.
Makarovs would like the sale of a strategic stake coupled with a domestically
aimed public offering for privatisation vouchers, while Naglis and Shkele say
that would take too long and want to press ahead with finding a strategic
investor.
Latvia's Way, the coalition's second-largest party, is meeting
later on Monday to form a position ahead of Tuesday's cabinet meeting but it is
expected to take a neutral stand.
"This is turning into a serious problem
for the cabinet," Andrejs Pantelejevs, head of Latvia's Way, told Reuters.
Pantelejevs said Shkele -- whose autocratic approach led coalition parties to
force him out of a government he headed in 1997 -- would have to a compromise
if he wants this administration to survive.
"Much depends on whether Shkele
has changed his style or will jump to sacking Makarovs, for example," said
Pantelejevs. "If that does not happen we might get over this."
Analysts
agreed, saying a hardline approach would backfire.
"I think they will
broker a deal among themselves. There are a lot of other chips in this
(privatisation) game...you'll have a lot of horse trading in the background,"
said local political analyst Nils Muizhnieks.
----
Copyright
1999 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
By MICHAEL TARM
Associated Press Writer
VISAGINAS, Lithuania (AP) -- Like software experts
around the world, Aleksandr Mysko is scrambling to ensure the computers at his
workplace are free of the millennium bug.
He may be under more pressure
than most. His task is to safeguard Ignalina nuclear power plant, the
Soviet-built, Chernobyl-style reactor that provides 80 percent of Lithuania's
electricity.
But he's optimistic. "Ironically, vis-a-vis Y2K anyway, we're
very lucky this plant is Soviet made," he says.
The reason: Ignalina is
less sophisticated than Western-built power plants, and thus potentially less
vulnerable to the year 2000 problem.
When 1999 comes to an end, computers
that use the last two digits of a year to keep track of dates could mistake
2000 for 1900, possibly causing vital systems to crash.
A shutdown at
Ignalina would certainly damage Lithuania's economy, but the greater worry is
whether a problem with a critical computer might lead to a nuclear
accident.
Outwardly, Ignalina hardly inspires confidence. Concrete crumbles
off the plant's 15-year-old facade, which is ringed by pot-holed roads and
strewn with derelict, rusty cranes.
Nevertheless, Mysko, who heads a 30-man
Y2K debugging project, says he's confident the plant will perform safely.
He has some support for that hopeful assessment.
The International Atomic
Energy Agency said Soviet-built plants like Ignalina aren't as reliant on
computers prone to Y2K foul-ups.
"They're built more like work horses than
thoroughbreds," said David Kyd, a spokesman at the U.N. agency's headquarters
in Vienna, Austria. "Their computer systems are more rugged and less sensitive
than those in the West."
Surveys of Lithuania's overall Y2K preparedness
aren't so optimistic.
The U.S.-based Gartner Group concluded in a recent
report that Lithuania was no better prepared than Afghanistan and Vietnam,
which are hardly prepared at all.
Andrea Di Maio, a Gartner nuclear power
specialist, said he couldn't speak specifically about Ignalina, but agreed that
safety systems at atomic plants, including Soviet-made ones, generally don't
depend on time-sensitive computers.
"Overall efficiency (of nuclear
plants) could be affected by Y2K problems. Their electrical distribution
systems could be disrupted, for instance," he said. "But I wouldn't think
people should be worried about mega accidents."
The report didn't include
the two other Baltic states, though regional analysts say Estonia and Latvia
seem to be faring better than Lithuania in fixing their computer systems. And
they don't have nuclear power plants.
Lithuanians don't seem overly
worried.
"I don't think it's going to blow up," said Igor Molianoki, an
engineer in the capital of Vilnius, 80 miles south of Ignalina. "The Soviets
knew how to build these things right. This plant won't pose a threat, neither
on 2000 nor on 2050."
The world's worst nuclear accident happened in 1986
in Ukraine when one of the Chernobyl plant's four reactors blew up, sending a
radioactive chemical cloud over Russia and much of Europe. The plant continues
to report chronic malfunctions.
Most Lithuanians don't seem even aware of
the potential problem.
Thumbing through a stack of Y2K-related directives,
Mysko said he couldn't say if Lithuania as a whole deserved poor marks on
preparedness, but insisted Ignalina does not.
The plant ran its first Y2K
tests early last year, following detailed procedures developed by the U.S.
Department of Energy, he said. He said all of the station's approximately 1,000
computers and all software had been checked and found to be free of year-change
problems.
That review also confirmed the safety systems that shut reactors
down at early signs of a malfunction are operated either manually or by
automatic control, and thus are not reliant on date-sensitive computers or
software, he said.
Mysko insisted he is "100 percent sure we won't have Y2K
problems here."
All the same, he won't be partying to celebrate the end of
one millennium and the start of another.
"I'm bringing my bed to the plant
that night. Are you kidding?" he said. "I wouldn't be anywhere but right here
on New Year's Eve, making sure everything's all right."