Dec 10
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If you ask Cubans, they are very satisfied and believe that they haven’t had problems since 1959. The most important thing is that people felt happy.
– Latvian President Valdis Zatlers in an interview to Belarusian newspaper Belorusskie Novosti.
Dec 08
VALKA – A three-hour ride on the train (at a cost of what must be the cheapest ride per kilometer in Europe) followed by a short ride on a local bus will get you to the Latvian border town of Valka.
As it is typical among most provincial towns in Latvia, Valka suffers from chronically being short on cash. Most of the money and investment remains in the Latvian capital and the remaining change trickled down to towns like Valka.
Empty unfinished windowless multi-apartment five-story homes decorate the southern outskirts of the town. I see them as the bus rushes me to the town’s center.
Sitting on the bus among mostly elderly Russian-speaking retirees chattering about their pensions, children and grandchildren, I feel myself a stranger. A country music singer Tracy Bird’s words suddenly fill my mind.
Way back up in the country, back in the hills
Down in the hollows where the folks are real
Livin’ with the crazies and the old wildcats
Sawed off shotguns and coonskin caps
That’s where I’m from and I’m proud to say
I’m from the country and I like it that way
Everybody knows everybody, everybody calls you friend
You don’t need an invitation, kick off your shoes come on in
Yeah, we know how to work and we know how to play
We’re from the country and we like it that way
And I thought how similar this American attitude is in this small town in northern Latvia with a population around 7,000 people. Everyone indeed knew everyone. An older gentleman called on a driver by name to stop the bus at a local hospital. People chit-chat about life in the bid city, brushing me with their glances. And I realize before I even say a word, everyone knows I’m a stranger in these parts.
The empty apartment buildings on the way to town have been abandoned back in the early 1990s when the town industry lost its market and crumbled. The town fell into economic depression, typical of small towns in post-Soviet Latvia.
To top off a string of economic problems, new independent countries, Estonia and Latvia, restored their borders. The internal border between two Soviet republics became the national border of two independent states, making it more complicated for people and goods to cross the Latvian-Estonian frontier. It meant customs, passports, paperwork.
Three points for border crossing have been opened, other streets that crossed the border have been closed with an impressive fence to prevent illegal border crossing into the Scandinavian candy-land.
Valka and the Estonian twin town of Valga share an interesting history. Valga and Valka made up the German-sounding town of Walk, and until 1920 it used to be one town with one government. In 1917-18, Estonians and Latvians began fulfilling their independence dreams.
Inside a building, which is now in Estonia, Latvian leaders for the first time called on Latvians to form an independent country one year before the independence was officially proclaimed at the Latvian capital, Riga. In another building, also in Estonia, the Green Peasants, the leading pro-independence party, was formed.
In short, the cradle of Latvia’s first independence movement is now located beyond Latvia’s borders.
Estonians helped Latvians win their independence from Russia. But neither Latvians nor Estonians could agree where exactly the border of the newly-formed Republic of Latvia and Republic of Estonia should be. The frustrated British colonel Stephen George Tallents drew the border through the town, which zigzags through city streets to this day.
On Raina street on the Latvian side (pictured), green moss covers the wet pavement near a patched-up border fence. Marking the border, Konnaoja (Frog Creek) runs underneath the barely-noticeable bridge, which have since developed holes.
A black-and-while metal road barrier stretches along the width of the street and sidewalks in front of the fence. The Latvian side faces a back door of an Estonian supermarket. Ahead of the bridge, a black-striped border poll reading “The Republic of Latvia” stands in the middle of the road.
The beautiful modern-art construction grew in the last 17 years when Latvia and Estonia re-established their respective borders.
A simple metal fence replaced an impressive sharp-pointed fence on Raina street in 2004 and now town officials from both sides plan to take it down altogether to allow pedestrians to cross the border freely when both countries join the common visa space.
Dec 06
RIGA – It’s time to update that good ol’ blogroll.
Baltic Visitor is a blog of travel tips for those who are traveling through the three different Baltic countries. The blog’s author is John Oates, a freelance travel writer, who is currently working on a guide to the Baltic States for a major UK publisher. “He is a former winner of the Guardian Young Travel Writer of the Year Award (for an article on Lithuania), and has written for publications including The London Paper and Global magazine.” BV was kind enough to link to this blog and it’s only appropriate to return the favor.
AB.PHOTO.LATVIA is a photolog stuffed with plenty of visual goodness from this small country of ours.
Ivan v. Jaan is a Russia-centered Estonian blog on politics. You’ve got to keep taps on your enemies, you know.
Baltic Bulletin comes from the mind of Mike Collier, the editor of Baltic Features, a one-stop shop for all your feature needs anywhere in the Baltics. The Baltic Bits entries are a must read, really.
Morten Hansen, an economics professor at Stockholm School of Economics in Riga has been blogging about Latvia’s economy on L-Diena Web site, leaving Latvians scratching their heads. Why does a Danish professor write in English on a Latvian web site? With rising inflation and bursting economy, it’s a shame not to read the Great Dane’s musings.
Dec 05
RIGA – Three is the magic number for Latvia’s outgoing Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis. His government, thirteenth in Latvia’s 79-year-old history, latched on to power for three years and three days, an amazing record for parliamentary democracy.
And today, we bid farewell to the 41-year-old father of three, the guarantor of stability, and the all-round nice guy.
Usually confident and self-assured to the point of arrogance, Kalvitis spent less than five minutes with the press this afternoon after he submitted a letter to President Dr. Valdis Zatlers announcing his government’s resignation.
He looked rushed, somewhat disinterested, wanting to go away from the spotlight of cameras and flash of photographers. He thanked everyone, including the Academy, for a job well-done in two languages – and disappeared.
And really, what else could he have said?
Although the four-party coalition maintains a majority in
parliament, the centre-right government has been under mounting pressure to step down since the October revolution and Subdued revolution.
This is the end of the Kalvitis years filled with zoo-elected presidents, guarantors of stability, double-digit inflation, and smoking strong pipe of peace with Russia.
On November 8, Kalvitis announced his government would step down today, giving the government time to “complete unfinished tasks.”
A week later, the English-language newspaper The Baltic Times compared his decision to “a draft of fresh air through a crack in an outhouse.”
“This has been the single worst government in Latvian history, and we can only wish it good riddance. That‘s the good news,” the newspaper declared.
“The bad news is that it would appear the same batch of compromised misfits will lead the next government – same incompetence, different faces – suggesting that the mismanagement of the imperiled Latvian state could be prolonged indefinitely.”
The public discontent that toppled the strong confident government had been mounting since February, when it pushed through the parliament controversial amendments to the security laws.
Then, there was Zatlers’ election, er, sorry, appointment, at the Riga Zoo, leaving public and Zatlers himself outside the gate.
Most recently, Latvia managed not only to negotiate the border treaty with Russia, but also to adhere to the Russian laws about political advertising one day before the Russian parliamentary elections.
So far, so good.
All the while, it was amazing to see the government lose the trust of the people in just one year since being re-elected.
Zatlers is preparing for talks on the new prime minister. So far three people are known to be interested – a number cruncher, and MEP, Valdis Dombrovskis from the New Era party, a former prime minister, a man of many words and wonderfully grey beard, Ivars Godmanis and a former mayor of the town of Kuldiga (from People’s Party) Edgars Zalans, who only recently has been appointed as a minister of regional development.
But regardless who will come in his place, the next prime minister will still have to deal with overheating economy, dancing the fine line between the moon and New York City, and earn back the public trust.
And there, numerology won’t help.
Dec 04
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RIGA – And there you have it – the real reason why LTV decided to postpone the anti-Putin film – I wouldn’t call it a documentary, you know.
Showing of the French documentary “The Putin’s System” on Latvian Television on Dec. 1, one day before the Russian Duma elections, could have been considered as an “unfriendly gesture”
Abrams Kleckins, the head of a government agency responsible for TV and radio broadcasting in this country said this morning in the parliament.
Broken tape or not, but the television station is showing this film as I write these words. And they’ll do a rerun of the film this weekend.
But it’s really not about the film any more. It’s about the domestic fear to screw things up ahead of the Russian-Latvian border treaty conclusion, or to step on someone’s big toes.
Dec 03
RIGA – Okay. Maybe it’s not the most appropriate headline.
Latvia is gradually selling its own independence back to Russia.
Judging from news bits posted throughout the day, the foreign minister Maris Riekstins has been modest his comments about the Sunday’s -farce- elections in Russia.
This afternoon, he told journalists he was disappointed with the lack of access at the election time, but he would rely on observers to tell the full story.
“We already have voiced our regret concerning the issue,” Riekstins told BNS.
Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis, whose government is set to step down on Wednesday, refused to comment all together.
And who can forget the slow Latvian response during the Estonian riots in April? Back then, the Parliament waited a whole week before adopting a resolution to condemn the rioters.
This time, however, Latvian Public Television has been under fire for now postponing the showing of an anti-Putin documentary on Saturday. TV execs told the media nothing was wrong with a delay, repeating the gobbledygook about a broken tape.
No matter how disheartening it may be, Latvia isn’t interested in making Russia angry. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, according to some sources, should visit Riga on Dec. 18 to exchange the now-constitutional border treaty agreement.
At the same time, the economic interests in Latvia aren’t interested in sour relationship with Russia.
To build Latvian economy based on transit of goods, Latvia will have to juggle between Russia and the EU like no other country in the Baltics, hell in the whole Union.
Latvia will have to share sometimes impossible values – that of democracy and the rule of law in the European Union and that of managed democracy and unlawful elections in Russia.
And as the song goes, “you could get stuck between the Moon and New York City. I know it’s crazy but it’s true.”
Dec 01
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Every regime honors its own heroes and erects them monuments. In its 90 years, Germans, Russians, Soviets, Germans had at one time or another taken control of power. Each regime brought changes in the capital city’s list of places to visit.
It was late summer 1918. It was just a few months until the new republic is declared on the ruins of World War I and another couple of years until Latvians finally win their independence.
The Germans, who occupied Riga, elected The Iron Guard on September 3, 1918. It was a monument to the German soldier – the liberator – made out of wood. In the local vernacular, the monument was nicknamed The Wooden Fritz.
The black wooden soldier stood in a small park outside the present-day Augstaka Tiesa building.
To show loyalty to new authorities, people could buy nails sold outside the monument and nail them into the soldier.
The Germans had lost to the Bolsheviks and the newly formed Soviet Latvian Republic erected the monument to Karl Marx on the same spot. On the same base.
It was unveiled on May 1, 1919, replacing the Iron Guard. The monument survived only 21 days.
The new Latvian authorities didn’t fancy a monument in that spot, nor were they keen on re-erecting the Wooden Fritz. So the place remained empty.
This is how that place looks today.
The Latvian independence lasted until 1940, when the Soviet troops rolled in and with open arms Latvia was accepted into the Soviet family of nations under the leadership of the Father of the people Joseph Stalin.
The first Soviet occupation lasted a bit longer than a year, but the Soviet architects had already erected a monument to the Great Leader in the city.
When the German troops arrived into town late June 30, 1941, the Stalin monument was demolished.
The Soviets regained control of Latvia in 1944. For whatever reasons, Stalin’s monument never returned to Riga.
In 1950, the Soviet authorities erected the monument to the leader of the nations in the fight against bourgeoisie Vladimir Lenin near the present-day Hotel Reval. It was the main – though certainly not the only – Lenin monument in Riga.
It stood until 1991 when the wind of change has brought it down and to pieces.
After Latvia regained its independence, the new authorities built monuments to their idols, including Latvia’s own Great Leader Karlis Ulmanis.
Dec 01
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RIGA – Latvian Public Television is supposed to show a documentary about Russian President Vladimir Putin tonight. Except that it won’t.
The unofficial information suggests that the Latvian foreign ministry and the Russian embassy in Latvia were somehow involved in the cancellation of the first-part of the two-part documentary The Putin System to be shown a day before the parliamentary elections in Russia.
The official reason, however, is a broken cassette. The TV channel didn’t say when it will be able to show the documentary.
The Putin System is directed by Jean-Michel Carré in association with Jill Emery for the French production company Les Films Grain De Sable.
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