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News highlights from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

News Highlights from September 7—September 14, 1998

• The Baltic states have reacted coolly to Yevgeny Primakov's appointment as Russian premier—but say they are glad their giant neighbor at least has a head of government.
          "I welcome anything that gets our Russian neighbor out of its state of uncertainty and out of its economic crisis," Estonian President Lennart Meri told the country’s Postimees daily.
          Latvia, which has been at loggerheads with Russia for most of this year over the status of Latvia’s Russian-speakers, said it was also heartened that Russia was finally putting together a workable government.
          But Latvian officials said they saw no reason to think relations with Moscow would improve under the new Russian regime. And diplomats expressed concern that Primakov could decide to turn up the heat on Latvia as a way to divert attention from problems at home.
          "We are cautious," said foreign ministry press chief Andrejs Pildegovics. "If their political and economic crisis continues…Russia might use external policies for internal domestic purposes."
          Many Balts also expressed skepticism about Primakov’s links to the Communist Party, to the old KGB and also to nationalists who say they’d like to reconstitute the Soviet Union in some form.
          Estonian opposition leader Siim Kallas said Primakov opposed the Soviet breakup and never accepted the policies pursued by the Baltics after their independence—including their bids for full NATO membership, which Primakov has adamantly opposed.
          "He still bears a grudge against the Baltic states because they broke away from the Soviet Union," Kallas told the Baltic News Service. "He thinks their independence was humiliating to Russia and he hasn’t gotten over that yet."
          But Kallas, who recently served as Estonian foreign minister, also praised Primakov as easygoing and pragmatic.
          "Though he may be surrounded by people who wouldn’t mind twisting a few arms, he has no dictatorial tendencies himself," he said.
          Lithuanian Foreign Minister Algirdas Saudargas told reporters he was happy the new Russian premier was a known entity.
          "I have met Primakov on several occasions and we know each other quite well," he said. "He is highly valued as a predictable politician.”

• Lithuania’s speaker of parliament on September 7 said the heavily militarized enclave of Kaliningrad could face possible famine and called on the international community to make preparations to send food aid to the region.
          In a statement, Vytautas Landsbergis said he took seriously the prospect of famine in Kaliningrad and said his country was ready to send food supplies to the enclave, which borders Lithuania to the west.
          Landsbergis, a former Lithuanian president known for taking a tough line on Russia, said he was reacting to warnings from military commanders in Kaliningrad that the Russian economic crisis was causing shortages—and that there were sufficient food supplies for only another 40 days.
          "Lithuania would probably manage to render part of such food assistance...but to make this possible, immediate preparations and coordinated actions should be taken, first of all with Poland and the European Union," the Landsbergis statement said.
          Later in the week, Latvia and Estonia also expressed concerns about food shortages in Russia. Baltic government leaders say their countries are ready to provide food aid to Russia, but they urged the European Union to take the lead in organizing it.

• Latvia said on September 8 that the Russian economic crisis would have the welcome effect of forcing Latvia to orient even more of its trade West.
          Even before recent economic turmoil in Russia, many observers said that Latvia—with nearly 20 percent of its exports going to Russia—was too vulnerable to an unstable Russian market and also to economic pressure from Moscow.
          But with the Russian export market collapsing, Latvian Foreign Minister Valdis Birkavs said Latvians now had little choice but to focus more on Western markets, particularly in European Union countries.
          "This is an advantageous moment," Birkavs told Latvian state radio. "Being forced to restrict trade with Russia in several sectors, we can now exert maximum attention in the direction of the European Union."
          To compensate for the loss of trade with Russia, Latvian Prime Minister Guntars Krasts also urged the EU to make its market more open. He said Brussels should drop some of the trade barriers for Latvian food producers, which have been especially hard hit by a fall in demand from Russia.
          Exports from Lithuania and Estonia to Russia have also plummeted in recent weeks. Estonian exports to Russia fell more than 50 percent in August.

• Latvian officials on September 9 said they feared Russians could begin flooding into Latvia to escape economic hardships at home.
          Prime Minister Guntars Krasts told reporters at a news conference that his government would begin drawing up contingency plans to deal with any refugee crisis. He said plans would likely include steps to strengthen Latvia’s eastern border with Russia.
          Latvia has been bickering with Moscow over the status of its huge Russian-speaking minority, which Russia says is being disenfranchised by tough citizenship laws. The Kremlin has even threatened Latvia with trade sanctions over the issue.
          But Latvia’s economy is healthy and robust compared to Russia’s. Living standards in the tiny Baltic state, while already higher than in Russia, are becoming much higher in comparison as the economic crisis in Russia worsens.

• Another delay in the trial of alleged Nazi Aleksandras Lileikis could mean the end of the trial before it ever really began.
          The 91-year-old is charged with genocide for allegedly turning over Lithuanian Jews to Nazi death squads during World War II, and some have suggested Lileikis could be feigning illness to escape justice.
          But a three-judge panel said in a brief court session on September 10 that it accepted a hospital report that Lileikis was suffering from over 20 different ailments, including hardening of the arteries and poor circulation to the brain.
          The court said it was putting proceedings off indefinitely and appointing a special medical commission to decide if Lileikis was too ill to speak in his own defense. If they find that he is, the trial would almost certainly be canceled.
          The Nazi trial, which would have been the first ever in the former Soviet empire, was slated to begin September 9—but was postponed until September 10 when Lileikis failed to show in court.
          On September 10 judges said they were postponing proceedings indefinitely pending findings by the medical commission. The commission’s work could take months.
          There has been some confusion about whether the trial could go ahead even if Lileikis is seriously ill. But both the defense and prosecution said they now agreed the law does not allow for proceedings if Lileikis is incapacitated.
          Lileikis could be tried in absentia only if he was trying to unlawfully evade trial, or if he was abroad and refused to return to Lithuania, judges said.
          Although Lileikis returned to Lithuania from the United States more than two years ago as the United States stripped him of his citizenship and was moving to deport him, he was only indicted earlier this year.
          Lileikis was head of the security police in the Lithuanian capital during the German occupation in 1941-44. About 90 percent of Lithuania's pre-war Jewish population of 240,000 was killed during Nazi rule.
          Lileikis emigrated in 1955 to the United States, and lived in Norwood, Mass., where he worked for a Lithuanian publishing house.
          Jewish groups have accused Lithuanian authorities of dragging their feet in hopes of averting a trial altogether. While Lithuanian leaders say they are committed to seeing alleged Nazis prosecuted, some Lithuanians have opposed Nazi trials, complaining that prosecutors are ignoring Soviet-era war crimes.

News Highlights from August 31—September 7, 1998

• In one of the biggest single thefts in Baltic history, an employee at a bank in Latvia has stolen the equivalent of three million dollars.
          Police said the employee walked out of a Riga branch of Unibank last week with 1.5 million Latvian lats packed in a suitcase. They said there was probably at least one accomplice.
          Police refused to say whether they had made any arrests.
          Banks officials at Unibank, the largest bank in Latvia, said the stolen money should be covered by their insurer, Lloyd’s of London. They also said they had formed an emergency committee to pin-point the lapse in security.

• On Monday, August 31, Russia closed down its last military operation in the Baltic states, the Skrunda radar station—an event hailed by Latvia as the final end of World War II on its territory.
          Latvian Foreign Minister Valdis Birkavs told a news conference in the town of Skrunda that the closure of the nearby radar marked the end of an era that began when Soviet troops marched into the region five decades ago.
          "This means that World War II is finally over for our country," he said.
          Most Latvians say they deeply resented the presence of the Skrunda radar, saying it was a bitter reminder of Soviet rule.
          Latvian President Guntis Ulmanis echoed that sentiment, saying in a statement Monday that the closure of Skrunda and the departure of some 400 Russian servicemen who manned the radar was long in coming.
          "(Monday) is related to the departure of an army of a foreign country." he said. "Its presence was unrequested and unwanted."
          The Skrunda station, responsible for scanning the western skies for incoming ballistic missiles, has been Russia’s most westerly radar and a main link in its air defense network. It began operating in 1971.
          Russian military officials switch off the radar facility at noon Monday, according to the Latvian Foreign Ministry. One official from the ministry was allowed onto the top-secret base to witness the radar being turned off.
          Municipal authorities in the town of Skrunda, a few kilometers from the base, said they would mark the closure of the radar with a choir performance and rock concert.
          Tens of thousands of Russian troops were pulled out of the Baltics and hundreds of bases were vacated after Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania won independence in 1991. With the exception of Skrunda, Russia completed its Baltic withdrawal in 1994.
          Moscow insisted on keeping Skrunda, saying it was critical to Russian defense. Under a lease Latvia grudgingly agreed to, Moscow paid 5 million dollars a year to maintain the Skrunda facility and promised to switch it off by August 31, 1998.
          The agreement allows Russia another 18 months to dismantle the equipment.
          Despite the importance of the radar and questions about whether Russia had a backup facilities, Latvian officials say Russia never asked to extend its lease.
          Russian media reports say a replacement for Skrunda could be built in Belarus, which borders Latvia to the east. In the meantime, existing radar stations in Russia are expected to take over some of Skrunda’s operations.
          Latvians have praised Russia for sticking to terms of the agreement, saying it would bode well for future bilateral relations—which have otherwise been strained over Moscow charges that Latvia discriminates against its huge Russian-speaking minority.
          The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe praised both Latvia and Russia for the successful implementation of the Skrunda agreement.