RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- European Union skeptics in the former Soviet Baltic republics got an unlikely boost from French President Jacques Chirac in their bid to keep the three countries from joining.
      In remarks perceived as condescending, Chirac last week told 10 Eastern European nations, including Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, that they should "keep quiet" about their support for Washington's Iraq policy.
      His comments confirmed fears among many that if the Baltics joined the EU, orders that once bellowed from Moscow would soon come from Brussels or Paris.
      "(Chirac's remarks) will certainly make people think harder (about voting for EU membership)," Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga said Thursday after a trip to Washington, where she met with U.S. President George W. Bush. "The words have been spoken and he can't take them back."
      Such comments won't make it easier for national leaders to allay fears of joining the EU.
      "This is what we're afraid of, taking orders from people who think they know better than we do," said waitress Liga Berzina of Latvia, which has 2.4 million residents.
      Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, still flush with national pride after regaining independence during the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, expect to join the EU in May 2004.
      Each country must get approval in national referendums scheduled later this year. Support in Estonia and Latvia is the lowest of all 10 countries invited to join during December's EU summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.
      Chirac's remarks, delivered after an emergency EU summit about Iraq Feb. 17, included a thinly veiled threat that EU membership must still be approved by the 15 current members.
      "It looks like Chirac has forgotten that Eastern European countries broke free from communism and ... will not be the silent servants of Paris," the Lithuanian newspaper Lietuvos Rytas wrote.
      The backlash came as governments in the Baltics plan television commercials and stump speeches aimed at convincing a population that still remembers iron-fisted Soviet rule that the EU is not the same kind of heavy-handed, centralized union.
      One anti-EU symbol is a communist hammer and sickle on a blue field circled by the trademark golden stars of the EU flag.
      Lithuania's referendum is scheduled for May 11. Estonians and Latvians will vote Sept. 14 and 20 respectively.

      LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) [excerpt] -- Following are some of the major events to have occurred on March 3 since 1900:
      1918 -- Germany and its allies signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Russia, ending hostilities between them in World War One.
      1991 -- Large majorities in Latvia and Estonia voted for independence from the Soviet Union in referendums.

      RIGA, Feb 25 (Reuters) -- Russian oil major YUKOS on Tuesday denied any interest taking control of Latvia's Ventspils oil port, due for privatisation later this year.
      "YUKOS has no intention of bidding for Ventspils Nafta," Arturas Jonkus, spokseman for YUKOS's Baltic operations, told Reuters.
      Latvian local media has speculated that YUKOS might attempt to invest in Ventspils Nafta to boost exports to Western markets.
      "I can confirm that people from YUKOS met with Ventspils Nafta in mid-February, but they only discussed technical issues and not investments," Jonkus said.
      Latvia complained to Moscow last week against Russian state pipeline monopoly Transneft's decision to halt oil exports to Ventspils, which Riga says is in violation of a 1993 cooperation deal.
      Transneft has not scheduled exports from Ventspils in the first quarter of 2003, stretching Russia's export capacity.
      Russian oil firms normally use the ice-free port to ship some 350,000 barrels per day. Without it this winter they have faced delays at other ice-bound Baltic alternatives.
      Some traders see the move as part of Transneft's attempts to pressurise Latvia into selling it a cheap stake in the Ventspils Nafta oil terminal, which is due for privatisation at the end of the year.
      Foreign Minister Sandra Kalniete said Latvia had support from both the European Union and the United States in the spat with Transneft, and that the EU would bring up the issue during EU-Russia energy talks in late March.
      She also warned that Latvia might call off the sell-off if it found it impossible to sell the state stake under open market conditions.
      Venstpils Nafta spokeswoman Gundega Varpa said the halt in oil exports by pipeline monopoly Transneft was hurting the company.
      "But we still plan a profit for this year due to railway shipments," she said, adding that the company was mulling to increase the capacity for railway shipments of oil products, but declined to give any further details.

      RIGA, Feb 26 (Reuters) -- Latvia's ruling coalition said on Wednesday it had nominated President Vaira Vike-Freiberga for re-election in the spring.
      "The ruling coalition has agreed to propose the president for re-election," Solveiga Silkalna, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Einars Repse, told Reuters. "From all we hear, there is widespread support across the board for Vike-Freiberga."
      The popular head of state, an independent, became eastern Europe's first female president when she was elected to a four-year term in 1999. She is the only confirmed candidate.
      The coalition said she was best suited to guiding the country into the European Union and NATO in the role which is largely ceremonial but has some influence on foreign policy.
      The election would be held in late March or early April, pending parliament's decision, Silkalna said. To be elected, a candidate must win a simple majority of MPs' votes.

      BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- NATO hopes to conclude membership negotiations with seven East European countries on March 26, an alliance official said Wednesday.
      Foreign ministers of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia and ambassadors of the 19 NATO nations are to sign the accession protocols then at a ceremony at the alliance headquarters.
      The negotiations deal largely with establishing the contribution of the newcomers to the budget that finances common NATO infrastructure and other projects.
      NATO officials initially had hoped to complete the expansion negotiations by March 1.
      The seven East European countries are to officially join May 1, 2004.
      NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson was to visit Lithuania on Thursday and Latvia on Friday as part of a round of visits to all seven candidates.

      Netherlands -- Over 10,000 bottles of Moskovskaya vodka destined for the Benelux countries have been impounded by Dutch customs officers pending the resolution of a long-simmering spat over the rights to sell Russia's national spirit abroad.
      Unfazed by the seizure, Soyuzplodoimport, the state-run vodka producer that sent the shipment, said this week this was in fact part of its efforts to outmaneuver SPI Group, with whom it is locked in a battle over rights to the popular Moskovskaya and Stolichnaya trademarks as well as dozens of others. "We shipped the vodka specially," Soyuzplodoimport spokesman Vladimir Uvatenko said, adding that the shipment of Russian-made Russian vodka lends tangible weight to its case. "Besides the documents for our lawsuit, there is a concrete shipment of vodka. Now the court has a concrete case to consider," he said.
      SPI, for its part, claimed to be unruffled by the suit and welcomed the chance to fend off the challenge. "Let them prove it isn't 1/8counterfeit3/8. They can carry the costs and hire the lawyers," SPI spokesman Sergei Boguslavsky said. Vodka magnate Yury Shefler's SPI Group owns the international rights to sell the brands, which it bottles in Latvia, in the trade confederation of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg and some 100 other countries. Soyuzplodoimport holds only the domestic trademark and has no legal right to sell its locally produced vodka anywhere outside the country. But arguing that vodka sold as Russian cannot be made outside Russia, it wants to win SPI's right to the label in each of the countries where SPI registered the trademark--starting with Benelux. Soyuzplodoimport contested SPI's trademark, on file with the Benelux registry, by filing a competing application for the Moskovskaya rights this month.
      But as holder of the original Benelux trademark, SPI says Soyuzplodoimport needs its permission to use the Moskovskaya label. Since that authorization was never given, SPI's Boguslavsky said the vodka sitting on the border is counterfeit. Soyuzplodoimport knew its vodka would be impounded upon arrival and picked the fight. It sent the crates of bottles along with a lawsuit staking its claim to the label, as a way to raise the profile for its claim. Soyuzplodoimport filed suit in a Rotterdam district court challenging SPI's rights to use the vodka trademarks in the Benelux countries on Feb. 20. A preliminary hearing has been set for March 12.
      The tug of war over the brand name began in October 2001 in Russian courts. After many appeals and delays, SPI lost its right to the Moskovskaya and Stolichnaya brand names in Russia, which it had held along with 41 others since 1997, after the Agriculture Ministry argued to a judge that SPI had obtained the trademark illegally from a company descended from the Soviet Union's food and drink import export agency, also called Soyuzplodoimport. Along with Moskovskaya, 16 other popular vodka trademarks were put in the government's hands at the same time.
      Shortly thereafter, in early 2002, SPI moved production of its brands from Kaliningrad to Riga, Latvia. Worldwide sales of vodka from the Latvijas Balzams distillery amounted to an estimated $600 million last year. SPI claims it can still call its vodka Russian, however, since it uses spirits imported from Russia.

      RIGA, Feb 28 (Reuters) -- NATO Secretary-General George Robertson warned Latvia on Friday it would need to strengthen security to protect the alliance's military secrets and fight against corruption ahead of entering NATO in 2004.
      "The protection of NATO's classified information is a very serious subject indeed," Robertson said in a speech to Latvia's parliament, adding that he was also concerned about the high corruption levels despite a recent drive to clamp down on graft.
      The ex-Soviet republic was among the seven recently invited to join NATO, including Baltic neighbours Latvia and Estonia.
      NATO officials have repeatedly expressed concern about lax Latvian security measures over sensitive information, saying security standards in the former Soviet republic were not in line with the alliance's requirements.
      U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in November said the seven former communist states invited to join NATO, including Latvia, must make reforms to fight corruption and ensure the protection of the alliance's secrets.
      Latvia has pledged to reform to meet NATO standards.
      "While I welcome the progress already made, I do urge you to devote continued attention to these critical issues," Robertson said.
      Robertson, on a tour of some of the countries invited to join NATO in 2004, also played down this month's NATO crisis when France, Germany and Belgium refused to back planning for the defence of Turkey in the case of a war in Iraq, shocking many leaders in Eastern Europe candidates.
      "We'll get over this period and we'll survive the tensions," he said, denying the episode marked any major crisis for the alliance.
      "NATO is not the Warsaw pact," Robertson said.
      "You are not joining some monolithic organisation where the Latvian voice will be suppressed," he said, adding that decision-making within NATO was based on democratic principles.
      "The Atlantic alliance is made up of big and small members and they all have a vote in the North Atlantic Council and no one has a bigger vote than anybody else."
      Robertson said during a visit to Lithuania on Thursday the alliance would never hesitate to rush to the defence of eastern Europe, soothing worries among seven alliance candidates in the region after the split over Turkey.
      He also warned that the candidates -- the three Baltic states and Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia -- would be closely scrutinised by alliance members ahead of accession in 2004, adding they should expect to be taken for a bumpy ride.

      RIGA, March 1 (Reuters) -- Latvia's parliament approved a 2003 budget with a 3.0 percent deficit after a marathon debate on Friday night, defying warnings from both the central bank and the International Monetary Fund.
      Parliament voted 55 to 44 with no abstentions in favour of the government's proposal, which puts total income for the small Baltic state at 1.67 billion lats ($2.89 billion) for a deficit of 177.5 million, or 3.0 percent of total gross domestic product (GDP), based on a forecast 5.5 percent economic growth.
      Latvia's ruling coalition, led by ex-central banker Einars Repse of the New Era party, has struggled to come up with a workable budget after implementing tax cuts promised in the election run-up last autumn and overspending by the outgoing government.
      "This is not an ideal budget," Repse told parliament. "But when we have secured additional revenues, we will be able to come back to the numerous priorities which we could not satisfy this time round," he said, referring to his hopes of boosting state coffers by a clampdown on corruption and tax-evasion.
      Repse had promised to prevent a 2003 deficit above 3.0 percent, a requirement for joining the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM-2), the waiting room for the euro single currency. He now said the government would try to narrow the gap to below 2.0 percent by year-end.
      The opposition complained the budget lacked sufficient investment for infrastructure developments and said the government was wasting money by putting several projects on hold in order to cut expenditure.
      Latvia was among the 10, mostly east European countries, invited to join the European Union in 2004. It hopes to join the ERM-2 the same year and enter euroland in 2006.
      Latvia had a 2002 budget deficit of 2.5 percent of GDP in 2002 despite promises to the IMF to limit it to 1.8-2.0 percent, which the current centre-right government says was due to reckless spending by the outgoing government.
      The IMF has said Latvia should aim for a lower budget deficit rather than to introduce tax cuts, while the central bank has warned the widening deficit could lead to a downgrade among rating agencies.

      RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- Latvia's parliament agreed Monday to push up its presidential election by three months in a bid by pro-European Union politicians to ensure that a crucial referendum on joining the bloc is approved later this year.
      The election will be held March 12, three months early.
      The move virtually assures the re-election of current President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, a popular politician who has raised the small Baltic Sea coast nation's international profile since taking office in June 1999. She's also been a staunch and eloquent advocate of EU membership.
      Vike-Freiberga, 66, is widely expected to be the only candidate on the ballot when the 100-seat Saeima legislature votes.
      The parliament -- not the public -- elects Latvia's president, who has traditionally focused on foreign policy since the country of 2.4 million residents declared independence amid the 1991 collapse of the former Soviet Union.
      Vike-Freiberga's term expires in July and the parliament sets the date for a new election, according to Latvia's constitution.
      Only a handful of opposition lawmakers opposed the decision, contending the short notice could leave possible candidates without time to mount a credible challenge.
      It is the first time since Latvian independence that a presidential election has been held so far before the president's term officially ends.
      Vike-Freiberga will likely be the face most Latvians see when the government begins an advertising campaign next month aimed at swaying a skeptical public before a national referendum on joining the EU Sept. 20.
      Nearly a third of Latvians are unsure how they will vote in the referendum, according to a Eurobarometer poll released in November.
      Latvia is one of 10 countries expected to join the EU next year.
      Vike-Freiberga has been the country's most popular politician since she burst onto the political scene in 1999, a year after she returned to her native country after fleeing ahead of the Soviet invasion during World War II.
      Fluent in French and English, she lived most of her life in Canada and was a psychology professor in Montreal before returning to Latvia.

      RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- Officials in the ex-Soviet Baltic republics said Tuesday the United States has not asked them about locating U.S. military bases in their countries -- despite reports Washington is eyeing eastern Europe as a possible new home for troops.
      Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, however, said her country was willing to consider a proposal.
      "When such an offer comes we would look at what is demanded from us and what is offered to us, what it will cost us and what we will gain from it," she told Latvian state radio Tuesday. "At this point, there has not been such an offer."
      Estonian and Lithuanian officials said they have not discussed the issue with Washington.
      "This all sounds a lot like science fiction," said Estonian government spokesman Daniel Vaarik. "It's not true that there are any such plans concerning Estonia."
      Estonian Defense Ministry spokesman Madis Mikko said no talks on a military-to-military level have taken place, either. He declined to comment on whether Estonia left open the possibility of hosting U.S. bases in the future.
      Their comments came after Marine Gen. James L. Jones, NATO's supreme commander and head of the 119,000 U.S. troops in Europe, said Washington was considering restructuring its European posts and bases, primarily in Germany.
      He said restructuring would make European-based American forces more flexible by rotating them regularly and reducing permanent base structures. It would also take advantage of NATO expansion to eastern Europe.
      The Baltics were invited to join NATO last year -- despite objections from Moscow. They, along with four other countries -- are expected to join the U.S.-led alliance in 2004.
      The Baltic states regained independence amid the 1991 Soviet collapse.
      Moscow has said it would oppose moves by Washington or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to put military installations in the Baltics, located along Russia's western border.
      Russia's Foreign Ministry warned this month that moving bases or heavy weapons into Poland, Hungary or the Czech Republic would violate NATO-Russian agreements.

      RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- A former Stalin-era Soviet agent pleaded innocent to 131 counts of genocide, and said his superiors forced him to sign orders that led to the deportation of hundreds of Latvians in 1949, a court official said Wednesday.
      Prosecutors assert that 81-year-old Nikolai Larionov was part of this ex-Soviet republic's Ministry of Security and was responsible for the exile of dozens of rural families, including elderly and pregnant women, to Siberian labor camps.
      If convicted, Larionov could be sentenced to life in prison.
      Larionov's trial started in September 2002, but was postponed hours after it began when he complained of dizziness.
      It resumed Tuesday in Zemgale District Court in Jelgava, 40 kilometers (24 miles) south of the capital, Riga, after prosecutors agreed to a judge's request to limit Larionov's time in the courtroom to an hour a day, court spokeswoman Tatyana Zemzare said.
      The trial is expected to last as long as a year, she said.
      Larionov acknowledged working for the ministry in 1949, four years after Josef Stalin's iron-fisted regime took control of the Baltic state, but said he was forced to sign the deportation papers against his will.
      An estimated 175,000 Latvians were executed or deported during Soviet rule.
      Since regaining independence amid the Soviet collapse in 1991, Lativa has convicted three former Stalinist agents.
      Latvia, along with neighboring Estonia and Lithuana, are the only former Soviet republics to try Stalin-era officials for crimes against humanity.
      Moscow has criticized the trials as witch-hunts that target sick, elderly men.

      RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- Latvia's government on Thursday canceled a hastily called presidential election -- scheduled for next week -- amid criticism of its legality by opposition parties.
      The decision came just three days after the Saeima parliament agreed to push up the election to March 12 -- three months early.
      Mondays vote, critics contended, was a bid to ensure the passage of a referendum approving Latvia's entrance into the European Union next year.
      Latvia, along with fellow Baltic states Estonia and Lithuania, was invited to join the powerful bloc in December 2002, but a national referendum giving approval is mandatory.
      A small number of opposition lawmakers complained that the snap election, which would have left President Vaira Vike-Freiberga virtually unchallenged, violated the former Soviet republic's constitution because she hadn't reached the end of her four-year term.
      Vike-Freiberga's term ends in July. In Latvia, the parliament, not the public, elects the president.
      "We still think there is no legal problem," Eriks Jekabsons, deputy speaker of parliament, told The Associated Press. "But we want to make sure there is not a shadow of doubt that the election's legal."
      Since regaining independence amid the 1991 Soviet collapse, Latvian presidential elections have traditionally been held in late June. Jekabsons said this year's election will likely be held then, too.
      Vike-Freiberga has been a key figure in the government's efforts to persuade a skeptical public in approving the EU referendum, which will be held Sept. 20.
      A fluent French and English speaker who has raised the international profile of the small country of 2.4 million people since taking office in 1999, she is widely expected to be given a second term.

      PARNU, Estonia, Feb 25 (Reuters) -- Hanif Gainalin sits in a dirty flat in the Estonian resort town of Parnu, half blind and in poor health after drinking the same poisonous moonshine vodka which killed 68 people two years ago.
      The jobless crane operator came to Estonia 27 years ago with hundreds of thousands others from further east to work within the Soviet Union's world of cradle-to-grave security.
      Now he is part of the Baltic state's lost generation, left behind by the rapid transformation to a Western-style society since Tallinn broke free from Moscow in 1991, and indifferent to the benefits of future European Union and NATO membership.
      "I am neither optimistic or pessimistic about the future," said Gainalin, 52. "I have no hope at all."
      The social divisions between those who embrace the "return to Europe" and those who hark back to a bygone era of stability and an all-embracing state have been writ large during campaigning for a general election on Sunday (March 2).
      The centre-left Centre party has rushed to the poor man's side, portraying itself as the voice of ordinary people against a right-wing in the pocket of the affluent in smug Tallinn.
      Its Robin Hood-style policies have propelled the Centre party to the top of opinion polls with almost 30 percent support.
      Many see its leader Edgar Savisaar as the next prime minister, possibly steering Estonia into a left turn that may bring it closer to Moscow and away from Washington and Brussels.
      The Centre party insists the gap between have's and have-not's threatens to wreck tiny Estonia. It says centre-right leaders should snap out of dreams about cocktail parties in Brussels and focus on helping people like Gainalin instead.
      Homeless after being thrown out on the street when his block of flats was sold to foreign investors, Gainalin says the market economy has made his life an uphill battle.
      "Capitalists might have been living better than we did during Soviet times, but you won't be able to buy any flat with a pension of just above 800 kroons ($55) a month," he said.
      ELECTION OF BROKEN DREAMS
      Many see Estonia as a fairy tale of successful economic reforms which have secured it a place in the European mainstream and brought freedom and prosperity to its 1.4 million people after half a century trapped behind the Iron Curtain.
      But although the speedy changes have made Estonia economically ready for the EU, it has also created a sharp social divide with many -- both Estonians and Soviet immigrants -- feeling alienated and impoverished.
      "Everyone is a winner from independence but not everyone is a winner from the market economy -- the nation is divided," said sociologist and parliamentary deputy Marju Lauristin.
      The Centre Party's campaign has been all about pocket issues such as pensions, progressive income taxes and social equality to help better distribute Estonia's new-found wealth.
      It ignores the EU, refusing to say whether it is for or against joining the wealthy bloc in May 2004, despite a looming September referendum on the issue.
      Many analysts see a populist danger in this, accusing Savisaar of playing upon the insecurities of the dispossessed with unrealistic promises of a half-way house between the stability of the past and the freedom of today.
      "The Centre party carries some sort of Soviet legacy," said Lauristin, who belongs to the social-democratic Moderates.
      "The election is not about left or right, but about Savisaar as an authoritarian leader of Soviet flavour," she added.
      Centre Party spokeswoman Evelyn Sepp denied Savisaar was a populist, adding that the party was "more democratic than any other party" in Estonia.
      "He just has a very good sense of social hot spots," she said, referring to his understanding of the plight of the poor.
      Gainalin longs for the past.
      "It was better during the Soviet years when everyone had a job," he said.
      MOONSHINE BLUES
      Widespread alcoholism among those at the bottom of the social ladder is one expression of the despair of people unable to cope with the change from communism to capitalism.
      Smuggling bootleg booze is rife in Estonia and other former Soviet states despite the dangers of the cut-prize brews.
      Booze sold as vodka, but actually deadly methanol, frequently kills drinkers, with the most deadly recent contamination episode in 2001 putting Gainalin in hospital.
      Emergency services in Parnu, 150 km (80 miles) south of the capital Tallinn, said one measure of the depths of social despair was that several "methanolers" had hit the same toxic bottle twice.
      "These people were hopeless, they didn't care anymore," said doctor Kulvar Mund.
      "Most of those with an alcohol problem belong to the 60 percent of the population that earns less than 30,000 kroons a year," he said.
      "The Soviet system was like Big Brother and took care of you 100 percent, but when the system changed many were left behind," said Andres Sinimeri, a superintendent at the Parnu police station. "Under capitalism many feel like a sheep among wolves."
      Mund said the get-rich-quick attitude many acquired when capitalism replaced the Soviet planned economy had shredded the social fabric, leaving many without a deeper meaning and purpose in life beyond the content of their wallets.
      "There is a saying among developed countries that if more than 15 percent of the economy is black, then democracy doesn't work anymore," he said. "Here it's 20 percent and that's why it's good to sell bootleg booze."

      VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) -- Lithuanian lawmakers amended an election law Tuesday, softening what were strict voter turnout requirements for referendums -- in a move designed to leave no doubt that an upcoming referendum on joining the European Union would pass.
      The Seimas legislature voted 73-4 for the new rules, which drop all turnout requirements and require only that 50 percent of those who show up to vote approve a ballot question.
      Before the change, half of all eligible voters had to appear at polling stations for a result was valid. And under the earlier rules, at least a third of all eligible voters -- also counting those who didn't bother voting -- had to cast yes votes.
      To ensure that as many Lithuanians vote as possible, the amendment also mandated that polling stations stay open for two days, extended voting hours and it simplified voting by mail.
      The referendum on EU membership is scheduled for May 11.
      The ex-Soviet republic was invited to join the EU in December 2002, fulfilling one of the top foreign policy goals the country set for itself after regaining independence from Moscow in 1991.
      EU skeptics, who say EU membership will infringe on Lithuania's hard-won sovereignty, criticized Tuesday's changes as a flagrant attempt to thwart the democratic process.
      Backers of the changes said the tough procedural requirements might have led to the EU referendum failing despite overwhelming support. They assert that the EU will open up new markets to Lithuania and bring it back into the European mainstream after 50 years of Soviet occupation.
      According to a recent poll conducted by the Lithuanian-based Baltic Surveys in February, 64 percent of local residents supported EU entry and 15 percent opposed it; the rest were undecided. The survey had a margin of error of 3 percent.

      VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) -- Military planes and helicopters roared over Lithuania's capital Wednesday as former stunt pilot Rolandas Paksas became the country's third president since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
      Paksas, 46, won a surprise victory in Lithuania's presidential runoff last month, defeating incumbent Valdas Adamkus, a 76-year-old former American who was the overwhelming favorite.
      Paksas said he would continue Adamkus' pro-West stance that saw the Baltic state garner invitations to join the European Union and NATO.
      In his inauguration speech, Paksas vowed to maintain the pro-reform, pro-West course of this nation of 3.5 million people. He urged the country's 2.7 million eligible voters to give their approval to EU membership in a referendum set for May 11. Lithuania was invited in December to join the expanding 15-nation bloc.
      He also said Lithuania would join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization next year.
      "Together with other allies, we will protect the security of Europe and the world," he told some 600 dignitaries, including Adamkus, inside parliament in the capital, Vilnius. "Safe, wealthy, influential and responsible: this is my vision of Lithuania."
      Paksas finished his speech by quoting former U.S. President John F. Kennedy's inaugural remarks in 1961, asking Lithuanians to "ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country."
      After he reviewed a Lithuanian honor guard and watched air force planes fly overhead, a limousine motorcade took him to the presidential palace in downtown Vilnius, passing flag-waving crowds that lined the streets and squares.
      "This is the great day for our country," said 54-year-old Danute Kairiene, a school teacher. "We have (a) new president, and people trust him."
      In Lithuania's parliamentary system, the president isn't involved in the day-to-day running of the country. But he is a top foreign envoy, mediates the formation of governments and, by speaking out on domestic issues, can exert influence on government policy.
      Paksas, elected mayor of Vilnius in 1997, won acclaim for reviving the city's medieval quarter, which fell into disrepair under Soviet rule. He later created the center-right Liberal Democratic party after splitting with the Liberal Union in 2000. He was prime minister in 1999 and again in 2000.
      During the campaign, which saw him take to the skies in his stunt plane and fly under a bridge, Paksas pledged to reinstate capital punishment for drug traffickers and to improve living standards.

      MOSCOW (AP) -- The typewritten letters on a yellowing page spell out the end of an era in striking shorthand. Next to the time -- 9:50 p.m., March 5, 1953 -- is just a brief entry: "Comrade I.V. Stalin died."
      So ends a medical report detailing Josef Stalin's last four days, as he lay dying in his Moscow dacha. It is part of a new exhibit at Russia's federal archives, whose officials hope it will help dispel decades of speculation that the Soviet dictator was done in by a Kremlin intrigue.
      If mysteries about Stalin's demise persist, they are dwarfed by the conflicting views and emotions that surround his life -- and his role in the troubled history of a country that seems unable to break his spell 50 years after his death.
      "There may be no other figure in Russian history of the last century who has provoked such different evaluations, from fierce hatred to consecration," said historian Yuri Polyakov, a member of the prestigious Russian Academy of Sciences.
      For some, Stalin was a giant who bore the Soviet Union on his shoulders to victory in World War II, hauled it onto the front line of the industrial age and kept ironclad order at home while turning the country into a superpower with the clout to make its Cold War foes shudder.
      "He was the best -- as a chief, as a leader. He lifted the country out of the ruins," said Natalya Vekshina, 64, who took her grandson to a separate exhibit, across town, focusing on Stalin's cult of personality -- the propaganda that portrayed him simultaneously as a god and a good guy.
      "We need a leader like him now," Vekshina said.
      Larisa Tsvizhba, at the archive exhibit, disagreed. She said Stalin left a "sinister mark" on the Soviet Union and stunted its growth by decimating a generation. "When millions of people die for no apparent reason -- the best people -- what kind of progress can there be?"
      Stalin's repressions "touched if not every person, then every other person in the country," said Tsvizhba.
      Russian officials have said they believe more than 20 million people were victims of communist purges before Stalin's death. More than 10 million are said to have died.
      Like many of Stalin's ardent admirers, Vekshina is from a generation that mostly suffered from the Soviet collapse. She lost her engineering job, while her scientist husband is "a big man in his field -- but now he's impoverished."
      But it's not only the elderly who yearn for Stalin's strong hand.
      "He is the symbol of a healthy nation," said Alexei Fedyakin, 27, a political science graduate student who came to see the "Stalin: Man and Symbol" exhibit and wrote a diatribe in the visitors' book complaining about material showing Stalin in a bad light.
      Those items -- records of executions, and artwork depicting Stalin holding the keys to a prison cell stretching across the Soviet Union -- reflect the backlash that came in two waves, one soon after his death and another in the late 1980s, with Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost.
      In 1956, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin's cult of personality, and his body was removed from its place next to Lenin in the Red Square mausoleum in 1961. But it was buried nearby, alongside the Kremlin wall, and much of the truth about Stalin's excesses did not emerge until the Gorbachev era.
      The sharp criticism of Stalin that held sway as the Soviet Union collapsed waned along with the euphoria of Russians hoping for a swift, smooth transition to democracy. Stalin's star has brightened for those angered by lawlessness, economic uncertainty and their country's decline on the world stage.
      Oleg Orlov, head of the human rights organization Memorial, said that frustration helped fuel the rise of President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB colonel who has restored some Soviet-era symbols and has been careful in his criticism of Stalin.
      "Putin arrived on this wave -- on promises of stability and pride for one's country as a great power, and of a restoration of order -- and a major part of this ideology was pride in the past," Orlov said.
      According to poll results by the Public Opinion Foundation last week, 37 percent said Stalin did more good than bad for the country -- compared to 29 percent who believe the opposite. The organization contacted 1,500 respondents across Russia on Feb. 22-23. No margin of error was given.
      In the visitors' book at the "Man and Symbol" exhibit, one person mused: "I wonder, will our country live to see the moment when Stalin is perceived as an ordinary person, instead of as either the devil incarnate or the Father of the Peoples?"
      The power of Stalin's personality and the scale of the suffering that marked his rule suggest that's unlikely to happen anytime soon.
      On one wall in the exhibit stands a large diorama presented to Stalin on his 70th birthday, in 1949. Inside, a row of dolls marches in Red Square, bearing a banner reading "Thank you, Comrade Stalin, for our happy childhood."
      Under glass in another room is a book listing victims of Stalin's terror. Many names are matched with photographs, and each brief biography notes the date and cause of death: shot July 28, 1938; shot Oct. 18, 1937; shot Sept. 1, 1938.
      Polyakov, the historian, said there is one thing he has never really figured out about Stalin: why he killed so many people. "There's no answer," he said.

      LONDON, March 4 (Reuters) -- Following is a notable quote from history.
      "We are happy that Lithuania is already free in soul and in truth."
       -- Vytautas Landsbergis, newly elected president of Lithuania on March 11, 1990. Lithuania's parliament proclaimed the restoration of the Baltic republic's pre-World War Two independence from the Soviet Union earlier that day.

      Summary
      Former Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus was elected president by parliamentary vote on Feb. 28. The true significance of the event is not Klaus' ascendancy, but the departure of his predecessor, Vaclav Havel. Havel's final exit from the political stage heralds the transfer of Central European leadership -- not to Klaus, but to Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga. The shift will reshape Central Europe's relations with the current European Union states, Russia and the United States.
      Analysis
      In the third round of voting on Feb. 28, the Parliament of the Czech Republic selected former Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus president. As in the other Central European states, it is the prime minister who truly runs the government in the Czech Republic. But while the presidency is largely a ceremonial position, it holds a great deal of moral authority and plays a significant role in shaping policy and affecting domestic and foreign public opinion.
      The Czech Republic After Havel
      Klaus replaces Vaclav Havel, who retired earlier in the month after steering the modern Czech Republic through the entirety of its post-Soviet existence. Havel was synonymous with modern Bohemia: In 1990, he helped to spark the Velvet Revolution when, standing in the streets of Prague, he demanded that the Soviet-installed Communist authorities relinquished power -- and they did. In 1993, he was the voice of reason that helped guide Czechoslovakia through the Velvet Divorce, quite possibly the world's -- and certainly Europe's -- least traumatic secession. Havel leaves office with the Czech Republic a NATO member, and with the country's invitation to join the European Union firmly in hand.
      Following Havel is a daunting task, but one Klaus relishes. Klaus considers himself Havel's rival -- ideologically, professionally and personally. An unapologetic Euroskeptic, Klaus' current support of EU membership is decidedly bereft of fervor. In the not-so-distant past, he served as a lightning rod for passionate opposition to EU membership. His re-emergence comes at an awkward time for Prague: One of the Czech president's primary responsibilities before the country joins the EU in June 2004 will be to smooth over any last-minute problems, a task that includes rallying last-minute support from the Czech citizenry before the mandatory referendum on the issue.
      However, the biggest effect the changing of the guard in Prague will have will not concern the Czech Republic, but all of Central Europe. Havel is the last in a group of leaders who forged the entities of the former Soviet bloc -- or at least the European portion of it -- into independent states. His skills in smoothing both the Soviet pullout and the Czechoslovakian breakup earned the passionate yet soft-spoken poet/playwright-cum-president the kudos of both Europe and the United States. He also became the unofficial spokesman for all of the newly freed states of the former Soviet and Warsaw Pact states, from Estonia to Bulgaria.
      Klaus is stepping into some very big shoes. But because he is so out of sync with the government and the Czech political mainstream, where all major parties are firmly pro-EU, his election effectively ends the Czech president's role as spokesman for Central Europe.
      Diplomacy, like nature, abhors a vacuum, and someone eventually must step forward to fill it. At this point, the most likely person to step forward as the focal point for Central European politics is Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga. Until recently, Stratfor considered Vike-Freiberga simply one among many, and certainly someone who trailed in Havel's shadow. But in February, she made her mark and now is rapidly emerging as the new political bonding agent for Central Europe.
      The Field of Contenders
      Many other candidates for the job are rather uninspiring.
      Estonia's Arnold Ruutel, Lithuania's Rolandas Paksas, Hungary's Ferenc Madl, Slovenia's Janez Drnovsek or Bulgaria's Georgi Parvanov are simply either too new or too forgettable. The only other Central European president with a regional presence is Romania's Ion Iliescu. Unfortunately for Iliescu, Romania is a laggard in the EU accession process -- not expected to gain membership until 2007 -- making it difficult for him to be a convincing regional leader. It doesn't hurt that Vike-Freiberga has more tenure than any of these politicians.
      She has a clear advantage over Slovakia's Rudolf Schuster and Poland's Aleksandr Kawsniewski, the only two presidents who have held office as long or longer than she has. Schuster spends almost as much time in an Austrian hospital as he does tending to his duties, and the only reason that the bulk of the Slovak political elite threw their support to him was to keep former Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar out of the limelight.
      That leaves Vike-Freiberga's only true competitor: Kwasniewski. The Polish president has been in office since 1995, four years longer than Vike-Freiberga, but he has become woefully distracted at a critical period. Kwasniewski currently is dealing with yet another Polish government crisis: The ruling coalition broke apart on March 1, leaving Warsaw with a minority government just a few short months before a crucial referendum on EU membership. The party booted out of power, the Peasants Party, is one of a small handful of Polish parties that actually opposes EU membership. This puts Kwasneiwski under heavy pressure to attend to domestic issues. By the time he again is able to pay substantial attention to the rest of the world, Vike-Freiberga most likely will have risen to the top of the heap.
      The New Voice of "New Europe"
      In early February, 10 Central European states -- including Latvia -- stressed their solidarity with the United States against Iraq. The response from France was swift and visceral: On Feb. 18, President Jacques Chirac called the joint statements "childish," "irresponsible" and "dangerous," and said the Central European states "missed a great opportunity to shut up."
      He then proceeded to obliquely threaten to deny them EU membership. The insulting statements were not kindly received by the EU applicants. None of the regional leaders expressed anything resembling agreement or solidarity with Chirac, and words such as "emotional" and "inappropriate" circulated widely. But it was from Vike-Freiberga that the real return salvos were launched: The Latvian president bluntly said, "We certainly have seen the results of appeasement ... It's much easier to tolerate a dictator when he's dictating over somebody else's life and not your own." When several warned her that she was playing with fire -- France could veto Latvian accession into both NATO and the EU -- Vike-Freiberga responded, "We did stick our neck out, and we will not pull it back." She added, "My predecessor in 1939 hoped to keep a low profile, and it didn't work."
      Her comments were warmly welcomed in London.
      Vike-Freiberga always has been considered a bit of a loose cannon, particularly in the rather sedate world of Nordic politics. But it was in her response to Chirac that she ceased to be one in a crowd of politicians, with Western media referring to "Vike-Freiberga and her fellow Central European presidents" instead of rattling off a few of them at random. Many supporters and critics already have labeled her the Margaret Thatcher of the Baltics.
      Vike-Freiberga was on a roll during her Feb. 15-20 visit to Washington, where she proved an instant hit with the Bush administration for her steadfast support for a strong U.S. presence in NATO and Europe. She clearly explained that Riga stood with the United States regardless of what Paris said. In her habitual way of making not-so-veiled references, this time to France's appeasement policies of the 1930s, she said, "I don't think we can find security by hiding away in a 'hidey-hole.' In our history, we have learned that our only chance for real security is standing with our allies, and hoping they will stand by us."
      That stance already has earned Latvia some American patronage. Most Latvians, and particularly the nationalistic Vike-Freiberga, consider Russia their primary adversary. Russia's oil transport monopoly, Transneft, has cut off all oil supplies to the Latvian oil port of Ventspils as part of its ongoing pressure to force Riga to sell the port to Transneft. Despite the current warmth between Moscow and Washington, Bush in mid-February delivered a cold warning to Moscow to stop bullying Latvia on energy issues. The fact that Vike-Freiberga, president of a country with a population of 2.4 million and with zero strategic depth, was able to actually meet with Bush and elicit such a strong statement of support has not been lost on Riga, Brussels or Moscow.
      Nor has it been lost on the rest of Central Europe. All of the region's states -- with the exception of Slovenia -- have an ax to grind with Russia. That Vike-Freiberga is not afraid to embarrass people when she feels it is appropriate is a refreshing -- and for many, appealing -- characteristic in a regional leader. That she is fluent in English and French from her years as a psychology professor in Quebec doesn't hurt either.
      Central Europe: The Case for Cooperation
      Overall, the demeanor of the Latvian president has proven quite popular within Central Europe, even if the pro-war stance has not. The reason is simple: Vaclav Klaus and his ilk may not share Vike-Freiberga's Atlanticist or European proclivities, but they certainly won't stand for France's put downs any more than Vike-Freiberga will. That goes for the entire region. If anything, Chirac's statements only banded the Central Europeans into a tighter association. This association will make the job of seeking out common Central European stances much easier than it was. When Havel became president in 1990, the only common denominator among Central European states was their occupation by Soviet forces. Vike-Freiberga plays upon this legacy adroitly before Latvians and the wider Central European audience: She asserts that Latvia is entitled to reclaim its "rightful place on the continent," and that "the Baltics must become a member of the EU if Europe is to be free and democratic in the 21st century, as it should have been 100 years ago." For Vike-Freiberga, membership in NATO and the EU is a means to an end --it's about gaining the ability to deal with Russia from a position of strength.
      But while Vike-Freiberga can still draw upon that common Soviet legacy, the past 13 years brought other shared experiences that, if anything, are even more binding. All of the Central European states have striven or continue to strive to join the same organizations: the EU, NATO, the World Trade Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The fact that they are all on the same path has provided endless opportunities for cooperation and collaboration.
      The most selective of these clubs, the EU, has proven the most extensive bonding experience of them all. The accession process has often been likened to instruction and colonialism rather than to advice and assistance. This has pushed Central European diplomats and technocrats to exchange notes aggressively after each meeting with their EU counterparts. The result has been a practical partnership that serves all of Central Europe well and causes many EU states to worry that the potential members will work as a bloc once they enter the Union.
      That is a reasonable concern. With the exception of Slovenia, all of the Central European states will qualify for extensive regional development aid and subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy. Moreover, all are closer geographically -- and to their collective chagrin, historically -- to Russia than nearly all of the current EU states. That makes them all much more willing to side with the United States than France on security issues. On this issue, as on so many others, Vike-Freiberga is a forceful spokesperson for the region.
      € -- But No Vaclav Havel
      Vike-Freiberga's gung-ho strategy couldn't be less like Havel's calm, collected oratory - but for the region, the era of waiting humbly at Europe's door has passed. With firm invitations for EU and NATO membership in hand for most of the region's states, the question now is how to use their new positions to carve out the best possible futures for themselves. Their common past and purpose -- personified by Vike-Freiberga -- will make achieving that goal more likely. It is this reality that lies at the root of France's fear of future isolation.
      That said, Vike-Freiberga certainly has her weaknesses. While her role in resurrecting lost Latvian culture makes her a card-carrying nationalist, she - unlike Havel -- was living safely in Canada during the bulk of the Cold War. Moreover, she wasn't even born in Latvia, a fact that robs her of crucial legitmacy from the get-go. But her greatest weakness is in her passionate opposition to what she identifies as her country's greatest foe: Russia. Twelve years after independence, ethnic Russians still comprise 30 percent of the Latvian population, a factor that Vike-Freiberga considers an "unnatural demographic profile" that is a "heritage of occupation." Her stance has drawn criticism about Latvia's treatment of the Russian minority.
      It doesn't help that Vike-Freiberga labels those who campaign for Russian rights in Latvia as "people who still have dreams of Russian domination." This anti-Russian sentiment is both Vike-Freiberga's greatest tool and greatest weakness. It will assure her broad support in Central Europe and the United States, because it will guarantee a firm U.S. presence in Europe for years to come. But it will do little for efforts to forge a stronger relationship between the EU and the Russian Federation. For most of the EU, Russia is an energy supplier and a reality that must be dealt with rather than ignored or wished away. For Central Europe, Russia is a former master whose influence needs to be minimized. Vike-Freiberga may be able to harness the latter sentiment to create a stronger position for Central Europe, but it will be at the cost of constant friction with her new European partners further west. Considering the mismatch between populous, rich Western Europe and smaller, poorer Central Europe, it isn't an easy fight. But under the voting provisions of the EU's Nice Treaty, the Central European states will be able to derail any policy they do not particularly like.
      Vike-Freiberga may be truthful when she says, "It is not a divided Europe that we want to enter," but her instinctive stance on Russia -- no matter how logical or justified it may seem -- will contribute to the very split in Europe that Chirac's insults so clearly laid bare.