Sunday, 22 August 1999

August 22, 1999

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Latvian chat Sunday 8/22 Date: 8/22/99 2:17:24 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Sturgalve
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.

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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."

Park bridge
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