Sveiki, all!

Summer is upon us (in this hemisphere, at least). Whether hot or cold, it's getting to be a good time of year to curl up with your computer in the comfort of your own home. Unless you're a sun (or snow) worshipper. Advance notice... we will be in Latvia the last half of July; so next week's mailer will most likely be the last edition until the beginning of August.

After President Bush's trip abroad, reported last week, things quieted down in the news:

• We were gratified that a recent survey only showed Latvia tied for fourth with Germany as the biggest threat to Russia. In a similar survey we reported last year, Latvia ranked third behind the U.S. and China; this year, China moved to #2 ally and was replaced by Afghanisatan, Japan moved ahead of Latvia into 3rd, while Germany joined as a newcomer
• Russia, Belarus, and the Ukraine marked the Nazi invasion of 1941. We continue to be distressed that there is still widespread belief, as reflected in the press, that the Baltic deportations just prior (June 14th) were just a "rounding up" of people whom the Soviets "feared" would oppose them--denying its true nature: an extension of Stalin's genocide
• European Commission President Prodi asks the Irish to reconsider their "no" vote on EU expansion
• Bush nominates a career diplomat, Brian Carlson, to be Ambassador to Latvia
• ITAR-TASS reports residents of Dudayev iela will picket to get the old Soviet name (Cosmonaut) back, now that the Riga Duma is a bit more left-leaning
• NATO Supreme Comander visits Latvia; urges Latvia to keep its military spending plans in place

We haven't had any time for surfing, our apologies for no new link this week.

This week's picture is another from our Vecriga (Old Riga) "tour" of last year.

For those of you on AOL, mailer or not, AOL Lat Chat starts at 9:00/9:30 Eastern time every Sunday evening, lasting until about 11:00. (BTW, chat is mostly in English, only love of Latvia and things Latvian required.) Click on the following link into your AOL browser: Town Square - Latvian chat

And thanks to those participating on the AOL Latvia message board (keyword "Latvia", then "Message Board" button) [LATVIA via AOL browser]

Ar visu labu,

Poll: Russians call Belarus top ally, U.S. biggest threat (Latvia tied for 4th)

AP WorldStream
Thursday, June 21, 2001 1:18:00 PM
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press
By ANGELA CHARLTON
Associated Press Writer

    MOSCOW (AP) -- Russians see neighboring Belarus as their strongest ally, followed by China in a distant second, and consider the United States their most likely enemy, according to a poll released Thursday.
    The poll by the independent ROMIR agency was taken before President Vladimir Putin's first meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush last weekend. The talks were seen as a welcome ice-breaker after months of frosty relations, but produced no concrete agreements.
    The survey release came as Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was in Moscow for talks with Russian leaders on his bid to strengthen a loose union between their countries. His trip was also seen as an attempt to secure Moscow's support in the run-up to Belarusian presidential elections this fall.
    Respondents were asked which countries they considered Russia's strongest allies and partners and allowed to give two answers. Belarus was chosen by 41.5 percent of respondents, China by 22.9 percent and Germany by 21 percent.
    The United States came in eighth, with 8.5 percent, well above countries Russia has courted diplomatically such as Yugoslavia, Iraq, Iran and Cuba.
    But the United States also topped the list of "countries that take an unfriendly or even enemy stance toward Russia."
    A total of 55.2 percent of respondents named America, followed far behind by Afghanistan with 18.5 percent, Japan with 8.4 percent and Germany and Latvia tied with 8.2 percent.
    The pollsters blamed the high anti-American sentiment on lingering Cold War attitudes, disillusionment with post-Soviet market reforms championed by the United States, NATO expansion toward Russian borders, and U.S. plans for a national missile defense.
    Fondness for China was attributed to the two countries' shared opposition to the U.S. missile defense and America's global dominance since the Soviet collapse.
    Germany, meanwhile, is one of Russia's largest trading partners, a key creditor and a major customer for Russian oil and gas. Putin, who speaks good German from his years as a KGB agent in then-East Germany, has formed a personal rapport with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
    Despite the support for Belarus, Russia's leaders remain wary of a full merger with their impoverished, isolated neighbor. Lukashenko has angered Western leaders by suppressing political opposition and independent media, and Moscow fears Belarus' economic woes would be too much of a burden.
    The poll was conducted in May among 2,000 respondents around the country. The agency did not give a margin of error.

Russia, Ukraine and Belarus mark 60th anniversary of Nazi invasion

AP WorldStream
Friday, June 22, 2001 4:33:00 AM
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press
By DAVID McHUGH
Associated Press Writer

    MOSCOW (AP) -- People across the former Soviet Union on Friday reminisced, laid wreaths and lit candles to mark a bitter anniversary, 60 years after the Nazi invasion that left some 27 million Soviet citizens dead.
    In the same early morning twilight that accompanied the invasion, elderly veterans, jackets sagging with medals, placed candles in ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Kremlin in Moscow shortly before 4 a.m. -- about the time that German troops crossed into Soviet territory on June 22, 1941.
    Several hundred young people also joined the event, holding small flags and candles. War memories are not only for the older generation, since the war plays a major part in the family history of most people in the former Soviet Union -- even those born after it ended.
    President Vladimir Putin's father, for example, was disabled by wounds from a German grenade; and Putin's older brother died of diphtheria as an infant in besieged Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. His mother nearly starved to death, and at one point was given up for dead after losing consciousness from hunger, Putin has told biographers.
    Under a mid-morning drizzle, Putin laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. "Twenty-seven million dead -- such a price was paid by no other country," Putin said in a noon (0800 GMT) television address. "You cannot understand Russia unless you understand what we went through in the war."
    Ceremonies were held in Belarus in the town of Brest near the former Soviet border, where defenders of a Soviet fortress held out for 28 days after being overrun in the first hours of the war. Commemorations were also planned in Kiev, capital of Ukraine.
    The war victory is looked back on as an untarnished accomplishment at a time when many people are disillusioned by the loss of the Soviet Union's superpower status after its 1991 breakup, and by the subsequent economic and political disorder and corruption.
    But the commemorations paper over many of the era's unpalatable memories.
    For instance, all the signs and memorials insist that the war lasted from 1941 to 1945, even though the Soviet Union entered World War II in September 1939 in an alliance with Nazi Germany by invading Poland. The two totalitarian powers carved up Poland and the Baltic States between them.
    On June 14, 1941, Soviet forces rounded up thousands of people they feared would oppose Soviet rule in Estonia and deported them to Siberia, where thousands died. That anniversary was mostly ignored in Russia.
    Little also is said publicly about the fate of Soviet POWs returning from German captivity. Many of them were promptly sent to Soviet prison camps by dictator Josef Stalin.
    After Germany dictator Adolf Hitler broke the alliance with Stalin and launched the attack on the Soviet Union, German forces captured huge swaths of the country.
    The tide turned with Soviet victories in battles at Stalingrad and Kursk in 1942-43. Soviet troops captured Berlin in May 1945 as U.S., British, Canadian and other allied troops invaded Germany from the west.

Prodi urges Irish to rethink Nice Treaty

Reuters World Report
Monday, June 25, 2001 5:07:00 AM
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.

    ROME, June 25 (Reuters) -- European Commission President Romano Prodi urged Ireland again on Monday to rethink its rejection of the Nice Treaty, saying the European Union could be enlarged without its ratification but this would be a mistake.
    In an article for Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper, he quoted lawyers as saying the EU could still open its doors to new states even if not all current members ratified the treaty, which Ireland unexpectedly rejected this month in a referendum.
    "But the real problem is a political one and, as a politician, I have to warn against the temptation of thinking enlargement can go ahead as planned if Nice fails. That would be a serious mistake," Prodi wrote.
    His comments echoed those he made last week in Ireland, when he said that if the country continued to reject the treaty, which provides the basis for enlargement, "Nice sinks -- stop."
    It was his clearest statement to date that without ratification from all 15 EU members, the treaty was doomed.
    "To my Irish friends, I say 'Look at Nice, think about the implications and when you are ready, we will be here to answer your concerns'," Prodi wrote in Monday's front-page article.
    "But remember that the decision, which only you can take, will have a decisive impact on the future of the whole continent."
    He said other EU members should discuss openly with their people the implications of the Nice Treaty, which was drawn up at a summit in the southern French city in December.
    The Nice Treaty is intended to pave the way for the entry of 12 applicant countries into the EU: Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Cyprus and Estonia.

Bush picks U.S. ambassadors to Armenia, Latvia

Reuters World Report
Tuesday, June 26, 2001 7:28:00 PM
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.

    WASHINGTON, June 26 (Reuters) -- President George W. Bush has decided to nominate career diplomats to be U.S. ambassadors to Armenia and Latvia, the White House said in a statement.
    Bush chose John Ordway, currently deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, to be ambassador to Armenia and Brian Carlson, who has served in public affairs roles in London, Madrid, Belgrade and Oslo, to be U.S. envoy to Latvia.
    The nominations are subject to the approval of the U.S. Senate.

Latvia: Dudayev Street residents want its old name restored

COMTEX Newswire
Thursday, June 28, 2001 2:16:00 AM
Copyright 2001 ITAR-TASS

    RIGA, Jun 28, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- Residents of the Dudayev Street of Riga have received the permission to picket the Riga Duma on Thursday. They are going to demand the restoration of the old name of their street -- the Cosmonauts Alley. The street was named after Dzhokhar Dudayev five years ago, when Latvian legislators actively supported the idea of the independence of Chechnya. Now power in the Latvian capital is in the hands of the left-wing parties, while national-radicals are in the minority. This is why residents of the Dudayev Street believe there is a chance that their demands will be heeded.
    The street was given the name of Dudayev in violation of the rule, under which pre-war names of the streets were restored. The names of Gagarin and Mayakovsky disappeared from the map of Riga, while the names of Gogol and Pushkin remained. The old name of the Yelizavetinskaya Street was restored.
    Boris Ravdin, a well-known Latvian historian, said in this connection: "Even the most absurd changes reflect the history of the period, in which they took place."

NATO commander urges Latvia to keep spending plans intact

Reuters World Report
Thursday, June 28, 2001 10:33:00 AM
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.

    RIGA, June 28 (Reuters) -- The Supreme Commander of NATO forces in Europe urged Latvia on Thursday not to stray from its plans to increase defence spending and upgrade its military.
    "As I looked at the progress that has been made from 1999 to 2001, to your plan to 2003, I would just encourage you to stay on that plan that you have outlined," U.S. Air Force General Joseph W. Ralston told a news conference in Riga.
    Latvia plans to spend 1.3 percent of GDP on defence this year and increase it to 1.75 percent in 2002.
    "If they (military spending plans) are followed then I have no concerns about your armed forces being a fully contributing member of NATO," he added.
    Ralston was visiting Latvia to assess its progress in preparing for NATO membership, for which Latvia hopes to receive an invitation at the organisation's summit in Prague next year.
    During his visit, Ralston was briefed on a joint tender by Latvia and its neighbour Estonia to purchase three dimensional (3D) long-range radars to operate as a part of Baltic air space surveillance and control system, or BALTNET.
    The radars will be delivered by U.S. Lockheed Martin.
    Latvia, along with its Baltic neighbours Estonia and Lithuania, sees NATO membership as the best way to guarantee the independence it regained in 1991 after 50 years of Soviet occupation.

From our Vecriga "tour" last year... Not as grand or ornate as the buildings on Alberta iela, No. 15/17 Ridzenes iela must still have been quite attractive in its heyday when it first arrived on the scene in 1902. Now it just laments behind the Universal Veikals (the Old Riga shopping mall). [Click on the picture for more detail!]