Sveiki, all!

First, our apologies. After our upgrade to AOL 6.0, several of you commented about the new "improved" format -- meanwhile, it turns out, some of you have been receiving text with lots of extra gibberish. Unfortunately, we don't have a good answer yet, only that the mailer usually appears on our website within a day or two -- you can always read it there: http://www.latvians.com

It was a busy week in the news, enough to split the mailer into two parts (another AOL feature!), topics include:

• the U.S. indicates evidence that the Russians have deployed nuclear weapons in Kalingrad; Russians says it's ridiculous
• entertainment/recreation center planned for site of the old Skrunda radar base
• Bolsheviks who threatened to blow up St. Peter's to go on trial
• Lithuania marks 10th anniversary of freedom
• a Latvian educator in the classics named one of the best
• the Baltic economy looks good for next year
• after consultation with international experts, charges are reinstated against Kononov
• (in German) our dictionary is still packed away -- apparently Vaira Vike-Freiberga's official web site was hacked into, leaving an unceremonious welcome message
• Russia denounces Kononov charges
• Lithuania demands that killers of participants in fateful January 13, 1991 pro-independence rally be brought to justice (demands apparently falling on deaf ears); Russians dismiss Landesbergis' demands as "just a speech"

This week's link is to the Jamestown Monitor. An artist has recorded his impressions of surviving life in the Gulags.

This week's picture, a sight along the Riga city canal.

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. And thanks to you participating on the Latvian message board as well: Click here: LATVIA (both on AOL only).

Ar visu labu,

This week's link is to the Jamestown Monitor:

   URL: http://www.jamestown.org/htm/gulag-ltr.htm

and one artist's haunting recollections of live in the Soviet Gulags, in the same camps where many Latvians also perished during Stalin's reign of terror.

COMTEX Newswire Thursday, January 04, 2001 2:59:00 AM
(c) 2001 United Press International

    WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Russia has deployed tactical nuclear weapons, possibly short-range SS-21 Tochka missiles, in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, unnamed U.S. Pentagon officials said Wednesday.
    According to a report by Bill Gertz in the Washington Times on Wednesday, Moscow deployed tactical nuclear missiles along the Baltic coast it controls between Poland and Lithuania, in June of last year.
    Kaliningrad, previously known as Konigsberg, the historic capital of German East Prussia, has been Soviet and then Russian territory, and the main base for Moscow's Baltic Fleet since the end of World War II.
    Anatoly Lobsky, naval spokesman and press aide to the Commander of the Russian Baltic Fleet, called the publication a "political provocation" and said the Baltic Fleet keeps the Baltic Sea and the region a nuclear-free zone.
    In an interview to the Russian government-owned ITAR-TASS news agency, Lobsky said that the Baltic Fleet "meticulously meets its international obligation."
    "There are no nuclear weapons in the arsenals of the navy in the Baltic sea," Lobsky told correspondents in Kaliningrad.
    However, U.S. spokespersons all but publicly admitted that the Russians introduced nukes into the strategically important Kaliningrad. "It is something we will be talking about with the Russians we believe there is something to discuss with the Russian ," State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said Wednesday. "
    "There were unilateral pledges that the Russian leadership made in the past about stationing nuclear weapons in the region," Boucher said.
    Pentagon spokesman, Kenneth Bacon conditionally recognized the possibility that the nukes were deployed.
    If Russia has indeed deployed tactical nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad, it appears probable that it did so as an angry reaction to two events over which the Clinton Administration has presided: the 1997 enlargement of NATO to include the former Warsaw Pact nations of Poland, the Czech republic and Hungary; and the Kosovo war.
    Certainly, confirmation of the tactical deployment of nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad should be seen as a stiff warning by Russia to NATO and the incoming new Bush administration not to expand the alliance further to include the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
    The reported SS-21 deployment is also a demonstration to the 15-nation European Union that Russia under Putin can carry sticks as well as carrots. It is a signal that Russia can get become a threat, and should not be seen as only a reliable source of natural gas.
    According to U.S. intelligence sources, the deployment of the tactical nuclear weapons was carried out in June, less than half a year after President Vladimir Putin took power.
    Given the time lag necessary to prepare for such a high security deployment, that means the nuclear deployment must have been one of the first decisions he took after assuming office a year ago.
    It also means that Putin is acting in accordance with the Military Doctrine prepared by the Russian General Staff that he approved on April 21.
    This document, prepared under Putin's direction in his capacity as secretary of former President Boris Yeltsin's National Security Council and later as Yeltsin's prime minister, envisages first-use of nuclear weapons by Russia if it is attacked by non-nuclear weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical or biological arms, or by an overwhelming conventional force.
    Since the days of the Cold War many Russian generals see the NATO Alliance as an "aggressive bloc" which possesses both hostile intentions and conventional superiority over Russia.
    NATO's 1999 out-of-area mission in Kosovo, which did not have the approval of the United Nations Security Council, was interpreted by the Russian Ministry of Defense on the Arbatskaya Square in Moscow, nicknamed "the Russian Pentagon," as a dress rehearsal of a massive strike against Russia.
    And many in the top ranks of the Russian military were livid that the former Soviet allies, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, joined NATO in 1997, defying loud protests from Moscow.
    Some argue that the real meaning of the Kaliningrad nuclear deployment has yet to be discovered.
    "A secret deployment of tactical nuclear weapons does not make sense," said Celeste Wallander, a Washington-based expert on European affairs at the Council for Foreign Relations. "You deploy these weapons openly, to send a message. If indeed the Russians did it, they are in violation of the 1991 and 1992 agreements with the (first) Bush administration," Wallander said.
    However, these agreements were never formalized in an international treaty form, and thus allow unilateral termination.
    A secret nuclear weapons deployment makes sense if the possibility of nuclear war between Russia and the West is taken seriously, and if Russia's conventional military capability to fight such a war remains weak..
    "Russia's move in Kaliningrad will scare Germans and other Europeans NATO allies away from further enlarging NATO to the Baltics," a European affairs analyst expected to receive a senior post from the new Bush administration told UPI.
    The Kaliningrad deployment gives chilling credibility to other Russian warnings of "asymmetric retaliation" against Western policies the Kremlin repeatedly described as threatening its security, including deployment of a National Missile Defense and expanding NATO to the Baltic States.
    Russian National Security Council and Defense Ministry sources which requested anonymity told UPI that such measures may include deploying multiple warheads, known as MIRVs on the modern SS-27 Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missiles ICBMs and making the currently stationary Topols mobile.
    Finally, the Kaliningrad deployment, if confirmed, would demonstrate that the Clinton administration's foreign policy towards Russia may have provoked escalation of tensions unseen in Europe since the height of the Cold War. This would be a grim and foreboding epilogue to what was once billed as a visionary U.S. policy towards Russia.
    (Ariel Cohen, Ph.D., is Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation.)

COMTEX Newswire Thursday, January 04, 2001 3:48:00 PM
(c) 2001 ITAR-TASS

    RIGA, January 4 (Itar-Tass) -- A new company -- the Kurzemei Public Fund, has become a new proprietor of the former Soviet military compound in Skrunda in Latvia.
    More than 60 facilities on the territory of the former Soviet radar station, the last military facility formerly owned by Russia 100 kilometers off Riga, were about to be pulled down when a company appeared, putting forward the idea of building a recreation, entertainment and tourism center there.
    The Kurzemei Fund was established by influential, rich people well-known in Latvia. For the time being, the territory of the former Soviet radar has been leased for designing purposes, but the lease agreement envisages subsequent sale to the lease holder.
    The new masters are planning to build a hotel complex there, housing different restaurants and even a kindergarten for visitors' children. The construction of the new entertainment center, which will be financed by foreign investors as well, is planned to be completed by the end of 2005.

COMTEX Newswire Friday, January 05, 2001 10:26:00 AM
(c) 2001 ITAR-TASS

    RIGA, January 5 (Itar-Tass) -- A case in National Bolsheviks accused of illegal crossing of the border with Latvia and terrorism was submitted to a Riga court on Friday.
    Along with three Russian followers of writer Eduard Limonov, the party's founder, their Latvian associate Vladimir Moskovtsev will also be tried, spokeswoman for the Prosecutor General's office Dzintra Subovska told Itar-Tass.
    All three on November 17, 2000, jumped off a transit train moving through Latvia, climbed St. Peter's Tower in central Riga and brandished red flags.
    They threatened to blow themselves by a grenade if local National Bolsheviks and former Soviet security police members were not set free from Latvian jails.
    The grenade later proved to be a fake. All four face up to 20 years behind bars or life imprisonment for terrorism. They have been given state-appointed lawyers.
    A date for the trial has not been defined so far.

Reuters World Report Sunday, January 07, 2001 9:04:00 PM
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.
By Burton Frierson

    VILNIUS, Jan 8 (Reuters) -- "Mother, I am still alive...We will stay here, don't worry."
    These are the last words Stase Asanaviciene's daughter, Loreta Asanaviciute, told her 10 years ago, before a Soviet tank ran her over in the early hours of January 13, 1991, at a television tower on the outskirts of Lithuania's capital Vilnius.
    Asanaviciute was one of 14 people who died that night as Soviet troops stormed the main television tower during a crackdown aimed at snuffing out the country's independence movement.
    She and her mother had joined the thousands who gathered to defend the tower, the radio and television centre and the parliament in non-violent resistance.
    The stoic refusal of the Lithuanians to back down in the face of tanks and troops that night shocked the Kremlin and surprised the world as Soviet military might withered before unarmed masses.
    "There was a feeling that we must have our own state, we must separate from the Soviet Union, that we couldn't live under the oppression," Asanaviciene told Reuters.
    FROM CAUTIOUS BEGINNINGS TO BOLD MOVES
    By 1991, Moscow had become irritated by the boldness of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia's claims to statehood, which they had lost in 1940 when Soviet troops marched across their borders.
    At first Moscow sanctioned their democratic movements, supposedly formed to help foster openness, but which later became the engines of the drive for independence.
    Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev first hoped they would lend grassroots support to his democratic "glasnost" reforms and economic restructuring in the 1980s.
    Before long, though, Gorbachev lost control of his own revolution and the legislatures of the Baltic states approved declarations of sovereignty.
    On August 23, 1989, two million Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians joined hands in a 600 km (375 mile) human chain from Vilnius to Riga to Tallinn -- the capitals of the three states -- to call for independence.
    Later that year Lithuania's communist party split from Moscow's. Then in March 1990, Lithuania did the unthinkable -- it declared full independence, which enraged Moscow.
    Gorbachev, paralysed by the prospect of the Soviet Union unravelling, fell prey to hawks. Hardliners plotted a crackdown.
    HARDLINERS TAKE ACTION
    Taking advantage of the Gulf War that had grabbed the West's attention and a Lithuanian political crisis over food prices, the hardliners went into action.
    Troop movements and the storming of local press headquarters by paratroopers on January 11, 1991 made it clear something was afoot.
    Independence supporters built barricades at the parliament. They began gathering there, at the broadcasting centre and at the television tower the following day in response to appeals by independence leader Vytautas Landsbergis.
    Stase Asanaviciene spent the day at the tower with her daughter before returning home alone. She went back to give Loreta her umbrella but could not find her among the crowds.
    She returned home to wait, she said. From the window of her living room, she can see the television tower, decorated with Christmas lights.
    Relief turned to horror later that night when Asanaviciene received another call -- this time from the hospital. Her daughter had been seriously wounded.
    When she arrived she saw only Loreta's bloody coat and shoes as doctors operated on her daughter behind closed doors.
    "After that I saw her only on TV footage...She was asking the doctor 'Will I live?'. Sorry, I can't talk about that anymore," said Asanaviciene.
    By the end of that long night, Lithuanians had lost their television tower and broadcasting centre, but they had kept their parliament -- and watched the Soviet Union back down.
    FEAR SPREADS TO NEIGHBOURING LATVIA
    News of the Vilnius events came as a jolt to neighbouring Latvia, including then prime minister Ivars Godmanis, who had just visited Moscow and met Gorbachev.
    "The day before (Vilnius) I was in Moscow. We were left with the impression from Gorbachev and also from (Defence Minister Dmitri) Yazov that they were fully in control of the situation and that no man would die," Godmanis told Reuters.
    "But in the early hours of the next day the Lithuanian parliament was under siege," Godmanis added.
    The deputy speaker of parliament, Dainis Ivans, called for supporters to gather at the legislature and other key locations.
    Seven days later troops stormed the Interior Ministry in Riga, killing five people, but did not take the parliament. Another died in a separate incident within days.
    "In spite of all it was non-violent resistance from our side," said Ivans, who said hardliners hoped to provoke violence to destroy the legitimacy of the independence movements.
    The presence of foreign media ensured that this did not happen.
    "On January 13 and 14 there were about 400 foreign and local journalists...in our press centre and this was the main force that stopped this coup d'etat," Ivans said.
    Only Estonia escaped violence that January after leaders got help from Russian leader Boris Yeltsin, who came to visit.
    "Yeltsin's visit had crucial importance in Estonia avoiding bloodshed, as Yeltsin addressed local Soviet army personnel and the Russian-speaking population through radio and television to calm them and keep the situation under control," said Arnold Ruutel, then head of Estonia's parliament.
    DEBATE RAGES ABOUT BLAME
    Ten years on, questions still surround the January Events, as they are known in Lithuania.
    "I still do not know things about the decision making in Moscow, those responsible have never been investigated, neither the military nor the political leaders of the time," Lithuania's Landsbergis told Reuters in an interview.
    Some feel Gorbachev, although under the influence of reactionaries, did not order the attacks himself.
    "By and large I tend to think Vilnius happened without Gorbachev's knowledge, that he was bypassed, but this is just my emotional hunch," Latvia's Godmanis said.
    Regardless of the blame, many in Lithuania are certain of the result -- they made Moscow retreat. The hardliners became increasingly desperate and launched a coup in Moscow the following August, which led to the break-up of the Soviet Union.
    "I would go again (to the tower)," Asanaviciene said. "I have already lost what was dearest to me, I have nothing else to lose."

Business Wire Wednesday, January 10, 2001 11:30:00 AM
Copyright (C) 2001 Business Wire

    MEDFORD, Mass., Jan 10, 2001 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Winners of AbleMedia's annual Gold Chalice Awards were announced today by the Classics Technology Center on the Web (CTCWeb). The winners are Raymond M. Koehler, a Latin teacher at the Brunswick School, Greenwich, Connecticut, Jennifer Powers, a Ph.D. candidate in Information Science at SUNY Albany, New York, and Dr. Dainis Zeps, a researcher in mathematics at the University of Latvia in Riga. "Each Gold Chalice winner contributed a unique resource to CTCWeb," said Charles R. Owens, AbleMedia's Chairman. "Their contributions are available free online to the hundreds of thousands of users who regularly access CTCWeb from over 70 countries on six continents."
    Koehler reports achieving a level of "rock star" celebrity among his students following the announcement of his award for The Modern Student's Guide to Catullus. "I actually felt like a celebrity -- it was more wonderful than I'd ever imagined. What's more, my students are acting like celebrities themselves," Koehler said. The Modern Student's Guide to Catullus includes 19 recordings of the poems of the ancient Roman poet Catullus performed by Koehler and his students in both Latin and English. An explanation of each recording is included along with links to the Latin text and English translation of each poem.
    Powers' work, Ancient Weddings, covers the history of ancient weddings, types of ancient wedding ceremonies, and provides descriptions of ideal marriages in ancient Greek and Roman culture. Powers takes a close look at the wedding poetry of the ancient Greek lyric poet, Sappho, and the ancient Roman poet Catullus. "CTCWeb connects individuals of all backgrounds to Classics scholarship," Powers said. "Since being awarded the Bronze and Silver Chalice awards, I have received emails from all over the world from individuals, teachers, and students about the usefulness of having my work available on CTCWeb. I appreciate CTCWeb's role in bringing attention to my work."
    Zeps' work, The Fables of Phaedrus: Reading Exercises in Latin, includes 38 animal fables written by the ancient Roman author Phaedrus. Each of the fables is written in simple Latin and draws a clear moral. Each word in a fable is linked to its dictionary definition, which includes the English translation and morphology of the word. A syntactical section accompanies the Latin text and definitions. "CTCWeb makes it possible to see the efforts of other educators who have developed materials for teaching Latin," Zeps said. "It is highly useful to see what other teachers are trying to achieve. This stimulates me to think about what can I do myself."
    "It is with deep gratitude that I award Honorable Mention in the Gold Chalice Chase to these outstanding educators and Silver Chalice-winning contributors: Darlene Bishop, Kent School District, Kent, Washington, for her work A Guided Tour of Ancient Egypt; Rose Williams, Abilene, Texas, for her work Ms. Rose's Latin Phrases & Mottoes; and Paul Barrette, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, for his work Electronic Resources for Latin," Owens said. "I personally thank all the fine educators and students who contributed to CTCWeb in 2000."
    Links to Gold Chalice and Honorable Mention award-winning contributions can be found on CTCWeb's home page, http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/index2.html.
    Each week AbleMedia salutes contributors for outstanding submissions to
    the CTCWeb Consortium (http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/consortium/),
    the CTCWeb Showcase (http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/showcase/),
    and CTCWeb Netshots(TM) (http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/netshots.html).
Each receives the Bronze Chalice award. AbleMedia awards Silver Chalices for the outstanding submissions of the month. At the end of each year, AbleMedia awards Gold Chalices for the outstanding submissions of the year.
    CTCWeb serves hundreds of thousands of educators, students, and other users in over 70 countries and the number of users is tripling annually. CTCWeb is a repository of practical tools, for classicists and other educators, to enhance the use of computer technology in Classics education. At CTCWeb, students, educators and others find the free dissemination and open exchange of practical educational materials, systems, and applications by individuals and organizations involved in the Classics community. AbleMedia sponsors CTCWeb as part of its community outreach program.
    AbleMedia is a global management and technology consulting firm. For over a quarter of a century, we have served the best, the brightest and the biggest in business, technology, and education. AbleMedia can be found on the World Wide Web at http://ablemedia.com.
    CONTACT: AbleMedia / Wendy E. Owens / 781-396-7582

COMTEX Newswire Wednesday, January 10, 2001 4:13:00 PM
Copyright (c) 2001 IPS-Inter Press Service

    VILNIUS, Lithuania, Jan 9, 2001 (Inter Press Service via COMTEX) -- The year 2001 promises an optimistic economic outlook for the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, which rank among leading candidates for membership of an enlarged European Union (EU).
    Enlargement of the 15-nation grouping is a top priority for Sweden, which took over the biannual rotating EU presidency on Jan. 1.
    According to the international rating agencies FITCH IBCA and Standard and Poor's, the economic ratings outlook for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia is stable.
    Economic policy and macroeconomic development of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania last year was also recognized by the European Commission.
    The European Commission's annual report on countries that have applied for EU membership, placed Lithuania, Latvia and Slovakia in the second category of transition economies with regards to fulfilling the economic criteria for accession.
    These countries are somewhat behind the first tier applicants Estonia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovenia.
    As to liberalization of the business environment, the Baltic States made progress here as well last year.
    Estonia was placed 14th among "the most free" countries in the Heritage Foundation's 2001 Index of Economic Freedom published by the Wall Street Journal, ahead of such countries as Sweden and Finland.
    Lithuania scored the biggest rise in the seven year history of the index, catapulting from last year's 61st to 42nd position, mainly on account of extensive privatization and liberalization of the economy in the year 2000.
    The macroeconomic indicators' estimate of the Baltic States for the year 2001 give rise to optimism as well. Consensus Economics, a UK-based research firm, is forecasting that this year GDP in Estonia will grow by 5.3 percent, in Latvia by 4.4 percent and in Lithuania by 3.6 percent.
    Inflation, at 3 percent, will be lowest in Lithuania this year, with 3.5 percent in Latvia and 4.3 percent in Estonia.
    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is even more optimistic in its World Global Outlook and is forecasting that this year Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Estonia and Latvia will grow by 6 percent and in Lithuania by 4 percent. Inflation will remain lowest in Lithuania, at 2.1 percent, with 2.7 percent in Latvia and Estonia.
    Lithuania, the largest economy in the Baltic States, has the most extensive and ambitious privatization program in the Baltics for the year 2001.
    The new government, formed after parliamentary elections in October 2000, has announced continuation of the privatization program started by the previous government.
    Privatization of the Lithuanian Power Company, Lithuanian Airlines and Lithuanian Railways is expected to start in 2001, while privatization of the Lithuanian Shipping Company should be completed this year.
    The estimated revenues from privatization transactions are already included in the National Budget for 2001.
    The restructuring and privatization of the energy sector will proceed during 2001, as separate energy activities will be broken up into competitive units with a diversity of ownership types.
    Energy concerns have already sent documents to the Ministry of Economy and thereby expressed their intention to participate in the privatization of the Lithuanian energy sector.
    According to the Lithuanian Ministry of Economy, the German company RWE, Belgian Electrabel, French Electricite de France, Tractabel, AES, Cinergy, NRG Energy, Swedish Vattenfall, Union Fenosa, Finnish Fortum and British Energy are on the list of potential investors.
    In relatively small Estonia, according to the Estonian Development Agency, big changes in the transportation sector are expected this year.
    AS Kalotex has started preparations to build a large oil and general goods port at Aseri on Estonia's northeastern coast.
    Kalotex plans a freight turnover of 7.5 million tons per year, which will rank Aseri second in Estonia after the port of Muuga near Tallinn.
    Work on the first stage, which includes installation of tanks for up to 40,000 tons of liquid cargo, will be completed this summer. The first ship of 30,000 tons capacity is expected to sail from the new port at the end of July 2001.
    The Estonian railway sector is attracting western investors as well. Britain's GB Railways will pay some $540,000 for shares in the Estonian transportation company Edelaraudtee (Southwest Railway).
    According to GB Railways' business plan the buyer will invest a total of $14.04 million in the Estonian domestic passenger carrier over five years.
    According to the Bank of Finland, privatization of large enterprises has lately been a major stumbling block in Latvia's structural reforms, and has caused the demise of more than one government.
    Although only a few large infrastructure companies remain in state ownership, their privatization has been drawn out over several years already.
    According to the Bank of Finland Institute for Economies in Transition, large-scale privatization has become highly politicized in Latvia. Political blocs and parties are eager to look after the interests of those sectors of the economy with which they have close ties.
    Nevertheless, the Latvian Privatization Agency has announced that privatization of the largest transnational corporation in Central Europe will take place in Latvia this year.
    In December of last year the Latvian Government approved the revised Privatization Regulations for the state-run Latvian Shipping Company (LASCO).
    The list of prospective bidders who have expressed an interest will be announced by January 2001. The first attempt to sell LASCO in March 2000 failed because no acceptable bids were filed.

Reuters North America Thursday, January 11, 2001 1:57:00 PM
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.

    RIGA, (Reuters) -- Latvian prosecutors said Thursday that they had refiled charges against World War II Soviet partisan Vasili Kononov, who will now receive a retrial of his 1999 war crimes conviction after an appeal.
    "We have refiled unchanged war crimes charges against Kononov, following the Supreme Court's (April 2000) request to elaborate on separate details," a spokeswoman for the prosecutor general's office told Reuters.
    She declined to elaborate on any of the details.
    Moscow and Riga have been arguing since 1999 over the case of Kononov, 78, a former Communist partisan sentenced to six years in jail in 1999 for his role in killing nine civilians in 1944.
    Russia regards him as a persecuted hero of the Soviet Union's struggle against Nazi German invaders. Russian President Vladimir Putin granted him Russian citizenship last spring.
    Latvian authorities also granted his request to have his citizenship in the Baltic state annulled.
    Latvia, which saw the Nazi occupation replaced by that of the Soviet Union, has said all war crimes must be punished, irrespective of what ideology motivated them.
    Latvia's Supreme Court has released Kononov for the duration of his appeal and asked international experts to review the case.
    The refiled charges will now be presented to Kononov and plaintiffs and then sent back to a lower court.
    "Theoretically the prosecutor's office can revoke charges even under appeals process if the convicted person comes up with convincing counter-evidence, which I do not expect to happen," the spokeswoman said.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur Friday, January 12, 2001 8:15:00 AM
Copyright dpa, 2001

    Riga (dpa) -- Hacker haben die lettische Präsidentin Vaira Vike-Freiberga am Freitag durch Manipulation ihrer Homepage geärgert. Wie eine Pressesprecherin bestätigte, war für einige Stunden statt der üblichen Begrüßung für Internetsurfer auf der Startseite in roten Lettern zu lesen: "Willkommen auf der Homepage der Vorsitzenden des Obersten Rats der Sowjetrepublik Lettland".
    Lettland ist seit 1991 nach einem halben Jahrhundert als Sowjetrepublik wieder ein unabhängiger Staat. Der Internet-Zugang zu den Präsidialseiten wurde zwischenzeitlich gesperrt, ist mittlerweile aber wieder online. Die Polizei hat Ermittlungen aufgenommen.
    (URL: Lettische Präsidentenkanzlei: http://www.president.lv)

Reuters North America Friday, January 12, 2001 5:24:00 PM
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.

    MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Russia's Foreign Ministry denounced Friday a decision by prosecutors in the Baltic state of Latvia to retry a 78-year-old anti-Nazi partisan on charges of killing civilians.
    Thursday's ruling in Riga will mean Vasili Kononov, freed last year while his appeal proceeded, will now face a new trial on the same charges on which he was convicted in 1999.
    "The collapse of previous attempts to secure his conviction proves that this 'affair' has no legal grounds and is driven by considerations far removed from jurisprudence," the Russian ministry said in a statement.
    "Through the groundless persecution of this anti-fascist partisan, the Latvian authorities are again undertaking to whitewash Nazi collaborators, review the outcome of World War II and confirm their conception of a 'Soviet occupation.'"
    Kononov was sentenced to six years in jail in 1999 for his role in killing nine civilians in 1944, but Russia regards him as a persecuted hero of the Soviet Union's battle against Nazi invaders. President Vladimir Putin granted him Russian citizenship last year.
    Latvia, like neighboring Estonia and Lithuania, was brought under Soviet control under secret protocols of the 1939 Nazi-Soviet pact. After the Nazi defeat, it was again under Kremlin rule until independence was restored in 1991.
    Latvian authorities say all war crimes must be punished, irrespective of what ideology motivated them.
    Latvia's Supreme Court released Kononov for the duration of his appeal and asked international experts to review the case. The charges will now be presented to Kononov and plaintiffs and then sent back to a lower court.
    Latvia has been criticized for failing to try a single suspect for Nazi-era crimes. One such suspect, Konrad Kalejs, was arrested in Australia in December following a Latvian extradition request, but Australian government officials say extradition proceedings could take up to two years.
    Russia's post-Soviet relations with Latvia also have been soured by Moscow's allegations of discrimination against the Baltic state's Russian minority.

Reuters World Report Saturday, January 13, 2001 7:55:00 AM
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.
By Burton Frierson

    VILNIUS, Jan 13 (Reuters) -- Lithuanian independence hero Vytautas Landsbergis demanded that ex-Soviet officials be tried for a 1991 military crackdown during a commemoration on Saturday of the historic struggle 10 years ago.
    Lithuania shocked the Kremlin and surprised the world on January 13, 1991, when unarmed civilians stood up to tanks and troops that Moscow sent to smash their independence movement.
    Fourteen died at the country's main television tower on the night of January 12-13, as soldiers opened fire and tanks ran over protesters.
    Lithuanians refer to the bloody episode, which sealed the country's independence, as the January Events.
    "This is a topic for the Hague tribunal and let us not refer to this killing as 'events'. The erosion of justice starts with the vocabulary, thus it should inspire the strengthening of justice," Landsbergis, who led his country's break with the Soviet Union, told a special session of parliament.
    Lithuania has asked Russia, Belarus and Ukraine to track down 42 people suspected of taking part in the crackdown but the three countries have given little reaction so far.
    Landsbergis himself sponsored an appeal to Russia's lower house of parliament, the Duma, on Friday to remove what he called "hindrances" in that country's legal system to help bring participants in the attack to justice.
    The appeal was not voted on but is to be considered later.
    "The Soviet army, by occupying our country 10 months after the 11th of March, was carrying out aggression and international crime and that is proved by the signature of the president of Russia," Landsbergis told Parliament.
    NO COMMENT FROM RUSSIA
    He was referring to Lithuania's March 11, 1990 declaration of independence from Moscow and a 1991-1992 agreement on interstate relations between Russia and the Baltic state recognising its independence. That agreement also recognised the March 11 declaration.
    Russian Ambassador Yuri Zubakov, who attended Saturday's parliament session, declined to comment on Landsbergis' calls.
    "That was not a statement by Landsbergis, that was a speech, a very emotional speech of a member of parliament. We cannot evaluate it," he told reporters.
    Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus thanked the crowds of Lithuanians who had gathered on that night 10 years ago to form human barriers at the TV tower, parliament and other key locations.
    He said those who heeded the call to defend the pro-independence government and parliament after receiving word of imminent Soviet military action had made history.
    "On that night love of homeland and love of freedom became a power bigger than the coercion of the empire. As never before were we strong, noble and beautiful. We were worthy of the historic victory and we achieved it," Adamkus said.
    During the crackdown, Soviet troops seized the TV tower and the radio and television broadcasting centre but failed to move on parliament, apparently stunned by the resistance.
    Lithuania, along with neighbouring Baltic states Latvia and Estonia, regained independence in September 1991 after a failed coup by hardliners in Moscow, ending five decades of occupation that started when the Red Army invaded in 1940.

A view southward along the Riga city canal, from Peters' trip in the fall of 1986.