Sveiki, all!

Hopefully everyone had a good time watching the Oscars! We trust the chat will be back to regular strength next time!

In the news, the most significant item was Lithuanian president's Valdas Adamkus' visit with Vladimir Putin. We've included two reports, one from the Associated Press (AP) and one from ITAR-TASS. We'd suggest you read for the tone of the two... the TASS one reeks of propaganda. Talk of the Soviets "rebuilding" Lithuania after the war (off-setting half a century of environmental havoc) sounds just like an English-translated propaganda tome published after the first 10 years of Soviet occupation of Latvia which Peters found in the local church library! And then there are the usual jabs at Latvia and Estonia.

This week's stories:

• Russia imposes a meat import ban that covers the EU and the Baltics
• Social democrats win the Riga mayoral election; many politicians made many promises, so time will tell
• Adamkus meets Putin, AP version
• Adamkus meets Putin, TASS version

This week's links are to geneology and Baltic news resources.

This week's picture is a re-scan of a picture already to be found on our site... the previous scan was from a print and carried over from Peters' old site on AOL. It continues on the theme of last week's mention of the British Airways faux pas.

As always, AOL'ers, 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: LATVIA (both on AOL only).

Ar visu labu,

We have two links this week. First is to the University of Minnesota and their Immigration History Resource Center, which includes separate sections for the Baltic states including Latvia:

   www1.umn.edu/ihrc/latvian.htm

Also included this week is a link to Radio Free Europe's Baltic Report. This link automatically connects to the latest issue:

   www.rferl.org/balticreport/

Russia-Meat Ban imposed

AP WorldStream Monday, March 26, 2001 8:08:00 AM
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press
By ANNA DOLGOV
Associated Press Writer

    MOSCOW (AP) — Russia banned imports of meat and diary products from the European Union and the Baltics on Monday, fearing the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, the Agriculture Ministry said.
    The ban will be effective for at least 21 days, after which officials will decide whether to extend or abolish it, Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev said, according to the Interfax news agency.
    The ban also covers imports from the three Baltic nations — Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the press service of the Agriculture Ministry said.
    Russia is a major meat importer, and Gordeyev said that while the ban is in place, the country will rely mainly on meat from the former Soviet republics of Belarus and Ukraine.
    Russia had earlier imposed a ban on beef, pork, lamb and other meat from Britain and France, after officials there reported cases of the foot-and-mouth disease. Experts warn that Russian herds are also under threat closer to home, with cases of the disease registered just across Russia's borders: in Mongolia and the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
    Officials say that Russia regularly vaccinates livestock for foot-and-mouth disease and has seen very few cases over the past decade.
    Governments around the world are banning livestock and meat imports in an effort to protect livestock from the disease after an outbreak in Britain.
    The disease can kill young animals, and infected animals produce less meat and milk. If uncontrolled, an outbreak can cripple a nation's livestock and dairy industries. The virus causes blister-like sores in the hooves and mouths of animals, and spreads quickly through the air or on motor vehicles or people.

Latvian capital's city council elects leftist mayor

AP WorldStream Tuesday, March 27, 2001 11:55:00 AM
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press

    RIGA, Latvia (AP) — A member of the leftist Social Democrats and the son of a former KGB officer was elected Tuesday as Riga's mayor, seen as an important post for launching national political campaigns.
    The Social Democrats scored major gains in local elections in the ex-Soviet republic earlier this month, and said they're now setting their sights on ousting ruling center-right parties from national power in 2002 parliamentary elections.
    Gundars Bojars was elected by the 60-seat city council with 31 votes; 26 went to outgoing mayor Andris Argalis, of the rightwing Fatherland and Freedom. Bojars also received the backing of the far-left For Equal Rights.
    Bojars, 34, is the son of Social Democratic leader Juris Bojars, who is legally barred from holding public office because he worked for the Soviet secret police, the KGB, during Soviet rule, which ended here in 1991.
    Riga, with a population of around 850,000, is the capital and largest city in this Baltic Sea coast nation and a center of economic activity. It's also the largest city anywhere in the three Baltic states, including Estonia and Lithuania.
    Prime Minister Andris Berzins, himself mayor of Riga before taking over the reins of national government last year, said he didn't think the leftist victory in the capital would affect his hold on power.
    "The government and the city council aren't related," he was quoted as telling the Baltic News Service.
    The younger Bojars, whose party has advocated more state spending to help the poor, called on all parties to work together to improve the capital's infrastructure, including pothole-filled roads.
    "Asphalt is asphalt and is neither leftist nor rightist," BNS quoted him as saying.

Lithuanian president meets Putin

AP WorldStream Friday, March 30, 2001 9:31:00 AM
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press
By ANNA DOLGOV
Associated Press Writer

    MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's trade with Lithuania doubled last year, a positive sign for sometimes strained relations between neighboring countries, President Vladimir Putin said Friday before talks with Lithuania's President Valdas Adamkus.
    Trade reached nearly dlrs 1 billion in 2000, Putin said at the start of the Kremlin meeting. Adamkus urged more trade and political cooperation.
    Adamkus' first official visit to Moscow has focused on how Lithuania's bid to join the European Union affects Russia — especially the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, which is sandwiched between EU candidates Poland and Lithuania and cut off from the rest of Russia.
    Adamkus said Thursday that Lithuania would "find a way" to let Russians travel easily through Lithuania to and from Kaliningrad. Kaliningrad residents will lose special visa-free travel privileges as Lithuania approaches membership in the EU.
    "Our approaches to the problem of Kaliningrad are alike, and we look with optimism at the possibilities of settling the problem of transit communications between the Kaliningrad region and the rest of the Russian Federation," Putin was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency.
    Russia also supplies a military base in Kalinigrad through Lithuania — a potential point of friction if Lithuania eventually joins the Western NATO military alliance.
    Putin and Adamkus discussed possible lowering of railroad tariffs for passengers and cargo through Kaliningrad and Lithuania; cooperation in combatting organized crime and drug trafficking, and other issues.
    "Even if we dispute on some of them, we are ready to settle the differences," Adamkus said.
    Adamkus, a former U.S. citizen elected in 1998, was scheduled on Saturday to visit Kaliningrad, where officials are hoping to win special trade and immigration rules to help the local economy integrate with the economies of its neighbors.
    Putin on Friday praised Lithuania's decision to grant Lithuanian citizenship to ethnic Russians living there. Ethnic Russians in the Baltic states of Latvia and Estonia have complained of discrimination in citizenship laws since the Baltic countries won independence with the 1991 Soviet collapse.
    Relations between Russia and Lithuania have been somewhat warmer than with the other Baltic nations. But disputes remain, including Lithuania's demand that Russia pay for environmental damage caused by the Soviet army during its five-decade occupation.
    The Soviet Union occupied the Baltic countries at the end of World War II, deporting thousands of people to Siberia and introducing Russian settlers.

Positive stands of Putin, Adamkus make meeting productive

COMTEX Newswire Friday, March 30, 2001 11:21:00 AM
(c) 1996-2001 ITAR-TASS
By Itar-Tass political writer Yuri Romantsov

    MOSCOW, Mar 30, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) — Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus had his first negotiations with Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday.
    Shortly before his visit to Moscow Adamkus said that it would aim at the development of economic and political relations between the two countries.
    Adamkus, formerly an American citizen, is pragmatic. "I have no doubt that Lithuania and Russia were, are and will be economic partners, because that is mutually beneficial... Through joint settlement of problems important for Lithuania and Russia, we will develop mutual understanding, neighborly relations and stability in the whole region," he said in one of the interviews.
    The Lithuanian leadership has repeatedly displayed a clear vision of realities by words and by deeds. That is the reason why it is easier for Moscow to deal with Vilnius than with the capitals of the other two Baltic republics.
    This is the second visit of the president of Lithuania to Russia. Algirdas Brazauskas, the then president of Lithuania, came to Moscow in 1997 to sign a number of documents, among them the treaty on the state border and the agreement on the division of the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf of the Baltic Sea.
    This time the main outcome of the visit is a joint statement of the two presidents, which puts the accent on the development of cooperation in many spheres, in particular, the struggle against the international terrorism, transnational organized crime, illegal trafficking of narcotic drugs and firearms.
    They also set the course of confidence-building measures and the development of security, contacts between defense departments, and the preservation of originality of the Russian and Lithuanian ethnic minorities.
    Yet there are some rocks in the bilateral relations. One of the irritants is Lithuania's striving to join NATO. Vilnius expects the invitation to the North Atlantic Alliance next year. Although Brussels and Vilnius say that it does not pose any jeopardy to Russia, Moscow has reasons to be concerned about the proximity of the giant military machinery to its borders.
    Last year the Lithuanian parliament approved a resolution, which described Russia, the successor of the former Soviet Union, as a country-occupier liable to compensate damage to Lithuania. Yet it said nothing about the huge Soviet contribution to the economic rehabilitation of Lithuania.
    Nonetheless, there is no official ethnic discrimination in Lithuania. All Russian-speaking people, who lived in Lithuania at the time when it became independent, were given the right to naturalization in contrast to the state of affairs in Latvia and Estonia. Russia has a free access to its western enclave of Kaliningrad. Lithuanian exports to Russia were 30 percent up last year, while Russian exports to Lithuania went up by 7 percent. Russian capital is present in a number of Lithuanian leading companies.
    The two presents displayed their readiness for positive development of the bilateral relations at the Moscow negotiations but said there were still many problems to settle. One of them is the problem of Kaliningrad in view of the Lithuanian nearing admission to the European Union. Lithuania is interested in cargo transit across Russia to Scandinavia and Asia, in particular, by the Transsib road, and joint uses of the Klaipeda port.
    "Our attitudes to the Kaliningrad problem are similar, and we are optimistic about a possibility to settle the problem of the transit connections of the Kaliningrad region with the rest of Russia," Putin said. "Even if opinions of the two sides about some problems may differ, we are ready to solve them," Adamkus noted.
    This attitude helped efficiency of the Moscow meeting and laid a foundation for further interaction in the bilateral relations and on the international scene, the Baltic region included. Moscow has repeatedly announced its readiness for the same attitude in relations with Latvia and Estonia.

Here's a picture of the Freedom Monument in Riga from Peters' trip in August 1997.