Sveiki, all!

We were on the road to/in Virginia last weekend, so our apologies for no mailer—so we're covering two weeks of events this week.

In the news:

• August 21st in history; we're always curious about the coincidences—Latvia declares independence from the USSR the same date that Soviet tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia to crush aspirations of freedom for another generation
• Latvia grants residence permits to pilots freed by India
• American veterans join Russian veterans in celebrating victory over Nazism
• Two bombs explode in the Centrs market in Old Riga
• Bomb threats increase in the aftermath
• August 25th in history — Latvia incorporated into the USSR
• Riga bombing records its first fatality
• Presidential candidate Bush says Russia must not have NATO veto power avoiding mentioning Baltics by name; article implies NATO has decided against membership for the Baltics (did we miss anything while we were on vacation, or does the article just refer to the first round of expansion?)
• Ukranian and Latvian presidents discuss economic cooperation
• Cabinet approves Latvian language law rules
• Russia denounces Latvian language law rules
• On a broader regional front, things are getting bleaker and bleaker in the former Prussia, now the Russian enclave of Kalingrad

This week's link is a bit unusual... it's about migrating storks, among other birds.

This week's picture is a glance into our mushroom bucket.

Remember, mailer or not, Lat Chat spontaneously appears every Sunday on AOL starting around 9:00/9:30pm Eastern time, lasting until 11:00/11:30pm. AOL'ers can follow this link: Town Square - Latvian chat

Ar visu labu!

And more good news on AOL, the country message boards have been resurrected! Use the keywork "Latvia" and then access the "Message Boards" for the Latvian message boards.

A project led out of Israel is tagging and tracking storks and other long-distance migrating birds using satellite technology. You can look up the migration routes for individual birds (each one has its own name) and see where they have traveled through Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Our AOL friend Pauls Bruvelis has already been in touch with them to talk about banding storks in Latvia. The site is at:

     The Migrating Birds Know No Boundaries Site (http://www.birds.org.il)

Reuters historical calendar — August 21 [excerpt]
Reuters North America Monday, August 14, 2000 2:42:00 PM
© 2000 Reuters Ltd.

     LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) — Following are some of the major events to have occurred on August 21 in history:
     1968 — Forces from the Soviet Union and four other Eastern Bloc states marched towards Prague after crossing the Czech border overnight.
     1991 — Latvia declared independence from the Soviet Union.
     1991 — Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev declared he was back in full control after a 60-hour coup by Communist hardliners crumbled under popular resistance.

Latvia grants residence permit to pilots released by India
COMTEX Newswire Wednesday, August 16, 2000 9:10:00 AM

     RIGA, August 16 (Itar-Tass) — Latvia has granted a permanent residence permit to the five pilots released from the Calcutta prison, Itar-Tass was told by a spokesperson for the Latvian Citizenship and Migration department Diana Urtane. After the pilots are officially registered in Latvia, they will be given individual taxation numbers, which will help settle a number of other problems.
     Chief pilot of the AN-26 crew Alexander Klishin will be paid pension allowances overdue since last October because his personal taxation number was annulled while he was in prison in India.
     All the five pilots had been granted Russian citizenship which played a decisive role in their release. Latvia has warmly welcomed the pilots who returned to their homes in Riga.
     Navigator Igor Moskvitin who fell ill with tuberculosis while he was in prison undergoes treatment free of charge at a medical center. The hospital personnel said that his condition is serious.
     ere/ezh © 2000 ITAR-TASS

Itar-Tass Russia and CIS news digest of August 16 [excerpt]
COMTEX Newswire Wednesday, August 16, 2000 9:25:00 AM

     MOSCOW — A delegation of US war veterans have arrived in Russia to acknowledge the accomplishments of their Russian friends and jointly mark the 55th anniversary of victory in the most devastating war in world history, World War II veteran, Brigade General Franc Levis Galer who is President of the US Association of pilots, said at a gala ceremony of opening the meeting of veterans of the Russian and US Air Force in Moscow on Wednesday. The gala meeting attended by Russian ace pilots was organized in the framework of the jubilee year of the 55th anniversary of victory of the Anti-Hitler coalition over fascist Germany. The meeting was organized by the Council of war veterans and the Air Force military service with the assistance of the Roszarubezhcenter association.
     RIGA — Latvia has granted a permanent residence permit to the five pilots released from the Calcutta prison, Itar-Tass was told by a spokesperson for the Latvian Citizenship and Migration department Diana Urtane. After the pilots are officially registered in Latvia, they will be given individual taxation numbers, which will help settle a number of other problems. Chief pilot of the AN-26 crew Alexander Klishin will be paid pension allowances overdue since last October because his personal taxation number was annulled while he was in prison in India. All the five pilots had been granted Russian citizenship which played a decisive role in their release. Latvia has warmly welcomed the pilots who returned to their homes in Riga.
     © 2000 ITAR-TASS

Latvia-Explosions
AP US & World Thursday, August 17, 2000 6:54:00 PM
© 2000 The Associated Press
By STEVEN C. JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer

     RIGA, Latvia (AP) — Two bombs ripped through crowds of after-work shoppers in Latvia's capital on Thursday, injuring 21 people and sending bleeding victims staggering into the street.
     Shoppers carried out others who had burns, broken limbs and cuts, police and witnesses said. Three people had serious injuries, police said.
     The bombs went off minutes apart at around 5:30 p.m. at the five-story Centrs shopping center in the heart of Riga's picturesque, medieval-era old town, police spokesman Krists Leiskalns said.
     Among the victims was a top police official, Valdis Pumpers, who suffered minor injuries. Police said they did not believe he was the target, but didn't know of a motive. There was no warning or claim of responsibility, they said.
     Police spokesman Leiskalns said investigators were considering the possibility of a "terrorist attack" or a "business dispute." He did not elaborate.
     There have been dozens of bombings in Riga since Latvia, a former Soviet republic with a population of 2.5 million, regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
     But injuries or deaths have been rare. Police say most of the blasts are the result of mob turf battles or extortion rackets.
     Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga condemned the attack and said she was confident police would find the bombers.
     Police cordoned off the area as employees, many of them in tears and some wearing bandages, milled around the cobblestone streets outside.
     Bartender Valda Bernsons heard the blasts from an Irish pub a block away and ran to the scene. She saw dozens of people, many bleeding, pushing through the center's front doors.
     "I started shaking so much that I had to go back to the bar," said Bernsons, still looking shaken several hours later. "I won't be able to sleep tonight."
     Other passers-by said they were shocked.
     "I felt the whole situation was unreal and couldn't be happening in Riga," said Oksana Smirnova, a journalist near the building when the blasts occurred. "When I saw the injured, I knew it was for real."
     Centrs is considered the most popular shopping center in Riga, with dozens of fashion boutiques and specialty shops. The bombs went off in an area where people can check their bags while they shop, police said.
     The explosions occurred on the ground floor not far from the Norwegian-owned Rimi grocery store. Its general director, Knut Kviskvik, was among those seriously injured, although his condition was not life threatening, the Baltic News Service reported. Details about the other two serious injuries were not immediately available.
     Baltic News Service called the explosion the worst since independence.

Latvian bomb threats spring up day after blasts
Reuters North America Friday, August 18, 2000 1:06:00 PM
© 2000 Reuters Ltd.

     RIGA (Reuters) — Latvian police said they evacuated a shopping center and other areas Friday, following bomb threats one day after two blasts injured 35 people.
     "Every call was checked and people were evacuated," a State Police spokesman told Reuters.
     One threat was at the Children's World shopping center, but he declined to identify the others.
     Police raised their toll for the number of people injured in Thursday's double bombing at the five-story Centrs shopping complex to 35 from 21 and said they were seeking a suspect. They showed journalists a composite portrait of a man.
     Officials said the two explosions that rocked Centrs were not the work of one person. Their main theory for a motive was business dealings gone wrong, but they were also considering terrorism and the possibility of a "mentally unbalanced person" behind the blasts.
     Organized crime groups in Latvia and other former Soviet republics used bombs to settle scores and protect their rackets in the days just after the collapse of communism in 1991.
     But the car bombings and revenge attacks attributed to criminal activity had generally not been placed so as to cause the maximum amount of damage to the general public, unlike Thursday's bomb centered on a baggage storage area adjacent to a usually crowded grocery store.

Reuters historical calendar — August 25 [excerpt]
Reuters World Report Friday, August 18, 2000 4:49:00 PM
© 2000 Reuters Ltd.

     LONDON, Aug 18 (Reuters) — Following are some of the major events to have occurred on August 25 in history.
     1912 — Former East German leader Erich Honecker born; he created the most potent and hated symbol of a divided Europe when he built the Berlin Wall in 1961 at the height of the Cold War.
     1921 — The United States and Germany signed a peace treaty ending the state of war between them.
     1936 — After a five-day show trial, 16 opponents of Stalin were executed in Russia.
     1940 — Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were incorporated into the Soviet Union.

Woman dies from recent Riga shopping mall blast
Reuters World Report Monday, August 21, 2000 6:30:00 AM
© 2000 Reuters Ltd.

     RIGA, Aug 21 (Reuters) — A woman hurt in one of two bomb blasts that rocked a Riga shopping centre last week has died while receiving treatment for burns in Sweden, the store said on Monday.
     Two bombs exploded in the Norwegian-owned shopping centre Centrs in the Latvian capital on August 17, injuring 35 people.
     Three of the victims were in serious condition and taken abroad for treatment.
     Rems Razums, a spokesman for Linstow Warner, a real estate developer that owns the mall, confirmed the death of the woman, but could give no further details.
     The local BNS news agency reported the woman was an employee of the Baltic arm of the Scandinavian RIMI grocery store chain.
     The woman worked in a baggage storage area on the ground floor of the mall, where the first bomb, equivalent to one kg (2.2 pounds) of dynamite, went off at 5:30 p.m. Another bomb exploded 10 minutes later.
     Police are still investigating the blasts and no one has been charged in connection with the crime. The mall remains closed though company officials have said it may re-open sometime this week.

Russia must not have NATO enlargement veto — Bush
Reuters North America Monday, August 21, 2000 3:16:00 PM
© 2000 Reuters Ltd.

     VILNIUS (Reuters) — U.S. Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush told the Lithuanian-American community in a letter that NATO expansion should continue and that Russia should not be allowed to halt the process.
     "I believe that the enlargement of NATO to include other nations with democratic values, pluralist political systems and free market economies should continue," Bush said in the letter dated Aug. 11.
     Bush's letter said it was in response to one written by the head of the Lithuanian-American Community, Regina Narusis. Reuters obtained its copy of the letter from the office of Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus.
     "I also believe that the development of a democratic and stable Russia is in the interest of all of Europe, and we do not see Russia as an enemy. But Russia must never be given veto over enlargement," the letter added.
     Lithuania and neighboring Baltic states Latvia and Estonia were deeply disappointed by a NATO decision to exclude them from its expansion, which brought in former Warsaw Pact members Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic in 1999.
     The three view NATO membership as the best way of guaranteeing the independence they won from Moscow in 1991, after 50 years of Soviet and Nazi occupation.
     Bush did not mention the Baltic states specifically in his letter. However, he said that central and east European countries had been "some of America's strongest friends and allies" noting their participation in peacekeeping efforts in Bosnia and Kosovo and a strong NATO was key to maintaining peace in Europe.
     "I believe that the security of the United States is inseparable from the security of Europe, and that a strong NATO is the foundation of peace," the letter said.
     "It is in America's interest that the new European democracies become fully integrated into the economic, political and security institutions of the transatlantic community."

Ukrainian, Latvian Presidents Holds Talks on Economic Cooperation
COMTEX Newswire Monday, August 21, 2000 10:29:00 PM

     KIEV (Aug. 21) XINHUA — Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma said his country has a special interest in further developing economic cooperation with Latvia, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported on Monday.
     During a meeting on Sunday with Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga in Yalta, Kuchma suggested that the terms of reference of an inter-governmental commission for economic and trade cooperation be expanded to cover bilateral cooperation in the fields of science, culture and humanitarianism, the news agency said.
     The two presidents also exchanged views on bilateral cooperation in international organizations. Kuchma invited Vike- Freiberga to pay an official visit to Ukraine.
     Two-way trade in the first five months of this year recorded an increase of 27.3 percent over the same period of last year.
© 2000 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

Latvia approves controversial language law rules
Reuters World Report Wednesday, August 23, 2000 6:24:00 AM
© 2000 Reuters Ltd.

     RIGA, Aug 23 (Reuters) — Latvia's cabinet has approved a set of rules to accompany a controversial language law that threatens to derail the former Soviet republic's drive for EU membership.
     The government press office said on Wednesday the law and the rules, which entrench the use of Latvian language in official matters, will take effect September 1.
     Latvia has about 650,000 Russian-speakers, or just over a quarter of the population, most of whom arrived in the Baltic nation before it won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
     Moscow has accused Latvia of trying to push the Russian-speaking minority to the fringe of economic and social life.
     The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has said the language law might not meet EU norms and intrudes into the private lives of citizens by forcing Latvian to be used in non-public spheres.
     The OSCE has worked closely with officials in drawing up both the law and the rules, but not all of its recommendations have been heeded.
     On Wednesday an official with the OSCE said they would not comment on the final version of the rules until an English translation had been provided and analysed.
     The rules retain a set of language proficiency levels — a point OSCE had advised against — but an employer will be free to determine what level of Latvian an employee has to have.
     The rules require the names of private firms to be given in Latvian and non-Latvian personal names in official identification documents to be spelled out according to Latvian grammatical rules, a cabinet press office spokeswoman said.
     On the OSCE's recommendation, the rules allow for international public events to be held in languages other than Latvian.
     Late last year Latvia was invited to begin detailed talks on membership of the EU but is not expected to be invited to join the 15-nation bloc until 2005 at the earliest.

Russia Says Latvia's Language Law Discriminatory
COMTEX Newswire Friday, August 25, 2000 3:01:00 PM

     MOSCOW (Aug. 25) XINHUA — Russia on Friday criticized as "discriminatory" neighboring Latvia's language law which will come into force in September, the Interfax news agency reported.
     The Latvian cabinet has adopted the rules for applying the law "in their worst version with purely cosmetic changes," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
     Latvian human rights organizations and international experts criticized the draft rules when they were being prepared as " running counter to the standards established by the OSCE ( Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) and the Council of Europe," the statement said.
     "Latvia will see yet another legislative act aimed at discriminating against the assimilation of national minorities," the document said.
     Moscow accuses the Latvian authorities of "continuing to ignore the demands of the majority of the Latvian people and the European human rights standards."
     The statement also criticized "some foreign partners" for their silent tolerance of Latvia's discriminatory policy against national minorities.
     © 2000 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

Kaliningrad Is Responsible for Own Demise, THE STALINGRAD TIMES
AP WorldSources Online Thursday, August 24, 2000 10:52:00 AM
© 2000 The Associated Press
by GARY PEACH

     Two years on, and Russia's short-term economic prospects are far brighter. It is a shame that the country's western province can't afford the same optimism. In the 24 months since August 1998, the economy in the region of Kaliningrad has sputtered and stagnated. Whereas other regions in Northwestern Russia have managed to resuscitate their local economies, Kaliningrad has become something of a pariah.
     Since the collapse of the GKO pyramid, poverty in the enclave has jumped, and investment has nearly bottomed out. According to Goskomstat, the state statistical agency, 38.7 percent of the region's residents lived beneath the poverty level in 1999, whereas the national average was 30 percent. The situation so far this year has barely improved. If two years ago a Kaliningrader took home $124 per month, now he or she must live off a ludicrous $60.
     The only way to change the situation is through direct investment, but in that sphere the region has been faring miserably. Investment in production was almost 20 percent year-on-year in 1999. Credit from local banks is so paltry that it accounted for only 1 percent of all investment in the region. Foreigners invested only $18.3 million, which is less than half of what they placed in the regional economy in 1998.
     One could continue, but there is little point in relisting the batch of sorry statistics. Put is this way: They are so depressing that the administration of Gov. Leonid Gorbenko said earlier this year that the statistics should be ignored since they are calculated according to outdated methodology. In other words, the truth must really sting the governor.
     Kaliningrad has a terrible reputation both at home and abroad: If one listens to news reports, then it is a backward, corrupt, crime-infested, drug-diseased territory that is developing at a fraction of the rate of neighboring Poland and Lithuania. Sadly, the Gorbenko administration is doing absolutely nothing to improve the region's image. The governor's refusal to participate in a conference on the future of Kaliningrad (his own region!), held in Copenhagen in May, tells foreigners all they need to know.
     Blame for the pitiful state of Kaliningrad's economy must be shouldered by regional residents alone. Neither an expanding NATO, nor the European Union, nor Moscow can be cast as scapegoat.
     Each time the question of Kaliningrad's economy comes up, the discussion quickly transmutes into a debate on what privileges the isolated region should be granted. President Vladimir Putin, during his visit to the province three weeks ago, stated his position unequivocally: "We don't need pilot regions," he said. "Every region should be strong in its own way."
     Amen. Just because the region of Kaliningrad is cut off from the Motherland by a chunk of Belarus and Lithuania does not entitle it to a swath of rights and privileges that the nation's other 88 regions can only thirst for. The residents here must learn to use the advantages sitting beneath their nose. The enclave possesses a wealth of undeveloped potential: hundreds of kilometers of recreational seashore; a monopoly on production of amber; oil reserves; warm-water ports; borders with two sovreign governments (both developing); and a rich history (which could attract thousands of tourists).
     So what's the problem? If two years ago it was an irresponsible Moscow, whose financial system ruined the ruble, now the source is mainly local. First the regional population must choose a new governor in November, and then it needs to get to work.
     Gary Peach is a freelance journalist living and working in Kaliningrad.
     © 2000 THE ST. PETERSBURG TIMES

Ah, nothing like mushrooms freshly gathered from the forest, soon to become a yummy cream sauce over luscious Latvian potatos! A quick glance into our plastic bucket brimming with pickings...