EE: €1.60 LV: €1.42 LT: €1.59

Stories about startups offering a stake in their business are not new, but rarer are accounts of high-tech

companies willing to give away shares for free.

PAGE5

The Baltics’ independent news source since 1992 lwww.baltictimes.comlAugust 11, 2016 – August 24, 2016Vol.20#884

SIZE DOESN’T MATTERLatvia’sRiohopesOlympics Page 8

RIO FEVERFreeclasses,BillyBoysBaltics Page 2

FIRST - EVER SEA SPLASHChildren’sdreamscometrue

Outlook Page 16

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ESTONIA IS TO PRESIDE EU IN THE FIRST HALF OF 2017.

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Karin Kuum

AftertheUK,inthewakeof Brexit, relinquished theEUpresidencysetforthefirsthalf-yearof 2017,fewotherEu-ropean states showed vigourtoreplaceitwiththeeyesof mostbeingsetonEstonia,thenextinlineforthestint.Andthetiniestof theBalticStatesnodded, although the presi-dencycomingahalf-yearear-lier than planned means lotsof rush for Estonians whowill have to make sure thatthe EU agenda is addressedproperly and around all-tier2,000meetingsinBrusselsareorganised smoothly and in atimely manner. Now that thepresidency is coming soonerthan expected, Estonian offi-

cials are increasing the tem-po to take on the challengepromptly.

A lot has yet to be done

“It is all manageable,just very intensive work andre-planning is needed,” saysTiina Urm, the head of com-munication for Estonia’s EUpresidency. “We are going toorganise up to 200 meetingsin Tallinn during the presi-dency, so there are a lot of practical arrangements to bedone and rearranged whenit comes to the logistics andmaking sure that things arerolled out smoothly in everyaspect — security, catering,andsupportservices.”

Most of the high-level

events will take place in therecentlyopenedCreativeHub(Kultuurikatel), a place rath-er different from the usualmeeting rooms in Brussels.Creative Hub is built in thepremises of a former powerstation,whichfunctionedun-til1979.

Tiina Urm sees the EUpresidency as a unique pos-sibility to promote Estonia,both as a tourist destinationandaplaceforbusiness.

“We are expecting about20,000 to 30,000 guests dur-ing the stint, many of whomwillvisitEstoniaforthefirsttime. We want to exhibit tothemwhatwedobest—whatEstonian entrepreneurs aredoingandwhatEstonianfoodislike,”shesays.

Costly EU presidency personnel-training

When it comes to Esto-nian presidency-related ex-penditures, the practical ar-rangements will not requiremostof thebudget,shepointsout, but hiring and trainingpersonnel as well as provid-ingthemproperworkingcon-ditions for them to do theirworkwill.

More than half of the 76million euros allocated forthe presidency will be spenton human resources, withthe number of staffers to betwiceas largeasatEstonia’spermanent representation inBrussels.

“Normallythereareabout

As EU Presidency Chair Estonia To Put E-commerce And EU Border Security In Spotlight

BNS/tBt Staff

TALLINN - A meeting of representatives of the Cen-tre Party, Pro Patria and ResPublica Union (IRL), and theFreePartytookplaceMondaymorning to discuss increas-ing support for the candida-cy of Allar Joks for the nextpresidentof Estonia.

Allar Joks, presidentialcandidateof IRLandtheFreePartytookpartinthegather-ing, spokespeople for IRL re-ported.

The chairman of IRL,Margus Tsahkna, affirmedthat the two parties haveopted to back Joks’ candi-dacy.Sinceacandidateneedsbroad-based support to getelected,IRLandtheFreePar-tyagreeduponaproposalof

theCentrePartytomeetanddiscuss the present status of thepresidentialrace.

“The Reform Party beganmusteringsupportforitscan-didate from Savisaar; hencetheyhavebackeddownonthecommondiscussionformatof the parties of the Riigikoguand we are in a new situa-tion.Sincewe’vegotnothingto discuss with Savisaar, wewelcomethe initiativeof theRiigikogu group of the Cen-trePartyandareopenalsotomeetingswithotherparties,”Tsahkna said of Friday’smeeting of Reform’s presi-dentialcandidateSiimKallaswiththeleaderof theCentreParty,EdgarSavisaar.

“The president must beable and willing to talk with

allpoliticalparties.This isaprincipletowhichIsubscribealso as presidential candi-date. Even though I believethat this time the presidentwill not be elected in the Ri-igikogu, I will work towardsgetting as broad-based sup-portaspossibleformycandi-dacy,”Jokssaid.

Itwasdecidedatthemeet-ing that Joks will assemblewith members of the parlia-mentary group of the Cen-tre Party at the end of thismonth.

Of MPs, Margus Tsahknaand Priit Sibul from the rul-ing coalition member IRL,Andres Herkel and AndresAmmas from the oppositionFree Party, and Kadri Sim-son, Juri Ratas and Jaanus

Karilaid from the oppositionCentre Party participated inthemeeting.

The president of Esto-nia is elected in parliament,where a candidate needs atwo-thirds majority or 68votestogetelected.If theRi-igikoguisunabletoelect thepresident in two tries plusa run-off, the job will be for-wardedtoanelectoralcollegecomprisedof all101membersof the parliament and repre-sentativesof municipalcoun-cils.

The beginning round of the presidential election inparliament is scheduled forAug.29.

Estonia: IRL, Free Party meet with Centre to discuss Joks’ presidential bid

Estonia: Georgian embassy says Bulgarian imitation wine must be pulled from storesBNS/tBt Staff

AccordingtotheGeorgianembassy in Tallinn, the Es-tonian distributor DekanterOU has not been given per-missiontoselltheremainingstock of the Kvanzkari wineproduced in Bulgaria whichimitates the protected Geor-gian wine Kvanchkara, andtheembassywantstheimita-tionwinetoberemovedfromstoresassoonaspossible.

The European Commis-sionnotificationof aBulgar-ianimitationwineforsaleinEstonia named Tartu storesof the retail chain Selver.Selver’smarketingchief Tri-inKaaretoldBNSattheendof JulythatSelverhadaskedthe supplier, Dekanter OU,forexplanation.AccordingtoDekanter, the company hadreached an agreement withthe Georgian embassy thattheycouldselltheremainingpartof theproductbutaneworderwouldnotbeplaced.

However, the Georgianembassy said there was nosuch agreement. “The Em-bassy is neither in the posi-tion to grant such a permis-sion, nor does it have the

2 The BalTic Times august 11, 2016 – august 24, 2016BALtICS

Andre Kavalieris

Brazil - With the RioOlympic Games taking overthe limelight of the world,throngs of athletes fromaroundtheglobearestillhun-keringdowninRio’sOlympicVillage.TheBrazilianauthor-itieshaverushedtofinishtheremaining lodgings, guaran-teeingthatnoonewillbedis-appointedwiththem.

A week before the torch’sarrival at the Rio City Stadi-um, the main infrastructureproblems were in connectiontothecompletionof someof the apartments, according toobservations by The BalticTimes’localreporter.

Plumbing and electricityproblems were being solvedat the last minute with resi-dentsfromover120countries(and counting) already ac-commodated in the Olympiccomplex.

ApproachedbyTheBalticTimes, Kenyan rugby playerSamuel Joseph said: “Thegym is excellent and it haseverything that is necessaryforus.”

German canoeing athleteFranz Anton stated: “Whatimpresses (us) the most isthe monumental size of theVillage. Besides some finaladjustments,whichwillprob-ablybesolvedinthenextfewdays, everything seems per-fect.”

If youhappenedtoendupintheAthletes’Village,todayyou’dseemanynationalflagsdraped on the windowsillsandhangingbeneath.

The flags unmistakablypointoutwhatcountry’sath-letes have cozied up in thelodgings. Some of the par-ticipatingcountries,however,prefer staying incognito dueto fear of becoming a targetfor a terrorist attack. Thelocal authorities have puttogether one of the largestsecurity forces the OlympicGames have ever seen, over80,000 men to be precise, tomake sure all leave the com-poundsafeandsound.

Over 10,000 athletes from206 countries will be lodgedin the Athletes’ Village. TheVillage comprises 31 17-floorbuildings with 3,604 apart-

mentsintotal. Itwillbecon-nected to the Athletes’ Park,a multisport centre withcourts, bike lanes, and otherentertainmentstructures.

Within the Athletes’ Vil-lage there is a music centrewithinwalkingdistancefromthe apartments and it willwork from noon to midnighthostingaslewof parties.

As a refresher, the gamesaretakingplaceinBrazil,andtherefore workshops to mas-ter samba and capoeira, thetypical Brazilian dance andmartial art, will be availableforthesportsmen.

And with the adrenalinerushingonandoff thecourts,the Brazilian Ministry of Health has placed 450,000condoms in 18 slot machinesacross the campus.TheBillyBoys are free and availableevenatthegymandthepoly-clinic!

At the 2012 OlympicGames in London, 150,000condoms were given out, fortherecord.

Needles to say, the dis-tribution of condoms seeksto prevent risky sexual ac-tivities that typically happenbetween athletes during thegames, although the Interna-tional Olympic Committeeseestheathletesasrolemod-els fighting HIV and othersexually transmitted diseas-es.

The expectations of theBrazilians are divergent andreflect the political momentof the country. According toDatafolha (a renowned Bra-zilian statistics/researchinstitute) about half of Bra-ziliansareagainst theOlym-pic games, as they feel thatthe huge amount of moneyinvested in the games’ struc-tures should be used else-where. Also, 63 per cent of Brazilians think that thegameswillbringmorepreju-dicethanbenefitstothecoun-try.Therefore,youcanexpecta great number of protestsfromthelocals.However,youcanalsobesurethattheBra-zilianpeoplewillmakeahugepartytohosttheathletesandfans from all over the world.Brazilians will never miss achancetoparty!

Bustling Rio Olympic Village offers free samba classes and Billy Boys

Brazil welcomes the world’s best athletes to the Olympic Village

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Moscow - Russian Cen-tral Bank has no hesitationregarding its right to placeany images, including thatof acontroversialWorldWarTwomonumentinVilnius,ontherublecoins,theBanksaidWednesday,Aug.3.

Earlier in the week, Lith-uanian Foreign Ministryslammed Russia for mintingthecoinsbearinganimageof the monument to the Soviet“liberators” in Vilnius. ThemonumentwaserectedintheLithuanian capital in 1952andremainedthereuntil2015whenitwasdemolished.

The 5-ruble coin was re-leasedonAug.1withthecir-culationof twomillion.

“No geopolitical changesfollowing the end of WorldWar Two could question theimportance of the commonvictory over Nazism by allpeople of Europe and theworld,” the Russian CentralBanksaidinastatement.

The coin’s design makesit evident that Russia hasnotlearntfromthehistoricaltruthabouttheSovietoccupa-tion, the official spokesmanfor the Lithuanian Embassyin Moscow, Marijus Petruso-nis,toldTheBalticTimes.

“Lithuanians have a dif-

ferentapproachtotheeventsof World War Two and thefollowing years. For us, oneoccupation just replaced theother.Still,itseemsthatRus-siahasn’tbeenreadytorecog-nise that,” he said Thursday,Aug.4.

As for the perception of thesituationamongtheLith-uanians residing in Russiapermanently, some of themmightevenbeproudthattheimage from their homeland,however controversial, hasappeared on a foreign coin,he added. “This is entirely amatterof theirpersonalsen-timents.”

“Idon’tthinktheissueof the coin should be regardedas Russia’s intervention intoour country’s domestic af-fairs.Thisisahistoricalrath-er than diplomatic dispute,”thediplomatsaid.

ARussianpoliticalexpertdisagrees, saying that the re-actionfromVilniushasbeennothingbuthysteria.

“This is a demonstrativepolitical move which has noformalreasons.Ibetthehys-teria will now start not onlyinVilniusbutalsointheoth-er (East European) capitals,”a political analyst from theMoscow’s conservative Peo-ple’s Diplomacy think tankVladimirKireevargued.

Beside the “Lithuanian”coin, the Russian CentralBank also issued on Aug.1 asetof similarcoinscommem-orating liberation of Latvia,Estonia, Ukraine, Moldova,and others countries — 14in total — from Nazi troopsin the final months of WorldWarTwo.

Eachof thosecoins’circu-lationhasalsobeen2million.Eachof thembearsanimageof theSovietwarmemorialintherespectivecountry.

“The latest events in po-litical, social, and economicsphere show it clearly that

Europe ostentatiously forgotabout who has liberated itfrom fascism. So it might re-mind them,” he said withoutelaborating to which eventshewasreferring.

Soviet troops cleared Vil-nius of Nazi troops on July13, 1944, sweeping out theGerman administration, butremainedfordecades.

Russia and Lithuania clash over ruble’s controversial design

“Idon’tthinktheissueof

thecoinshouldberegarded

asRussia’sinterventioninto

ourcountry’sdomesticaffairs.

Thisisahistoricalrather

thandiplomaticdispute,”

thediplomatsaid.ARussianpolitical

expertsaysthatthereaction

fromVilniushasbeennothingbuthysteria.

“Thisisademonstrative

politicalmovewhichhasno

formalreasons.Ibetthehysteria

willnowstartnotonlyinVilniusbutalsoin

theotherEasternEuropean

countries.”

The controversial 5-ruble coin was released on Aug. 1 with two million in circulation.

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Latvian Prime MinisterMaris Kucinskis does notexclude a change of govern-ment due to Unity’s internalinterests, the prime ministertold the press Tuesday, Aug.9,commentingonthegovern-ment’s decision to postponethe vote on the candidate forthe director general of theStateRevenueService.

“I told the Unity’s minis-tersunofficiallythatourteamof ministersisverygood,butIamnotready toparticipatein‘games,’”hesaid.

“In my opinion, the deci-sion on approving (Inga Ko-legovaforthepositionof theState Revenue Service head)wasnecessaryandisstillverynecessary.TheStateRevenueServiceisaheadof bigchang-es. As the coalition partners

took the opportunity to post-pone the decision makingto next week, we postponedit. Nevertheless, this issuewill be on the government’sagenda also next week,” saidKucinskis.

“I trust Kolegova and Ithink that she is one of thefewwhoisnotafraidtoworkintheStateRevenueService,”hesaid.

As reported, the govern-ment postponed on Tuesday,Aug. 9, the vote on appoint-ing the State EnvironmentalService’sheadIngaKolegovaasthedirectorgeneralof theState Revenue Service untilnext week following Unity’sobjections to Kolegova’s can-didacy.

All four Unity ministersparticipating in the govern-ment’smeetingvotedagainstappointing Kolegova as the

Revenue Service’s chief.Therefore, according to thecoalition agreement, reviewof thematterhadtobeputoff foraweek.

PrimeMinisterMarisKu-cinskis (Greens/Farmers)saidthathewouldnotbetheone to violate the coalitionagreement, hence the deci-siontopostponethevote.

As reported, the previ-ous Revenue Service Direc-tor General Inara Petersonestepped down at the end of thispastJune.Atendertoap-point the Revenue Service’snew general director endedwithout any results as noneof the four candidates short-listedinthesecondroundof tenderwasfoundtobefitforthenextround.

Latvian PM does not exclude change of government

3The BalTic Times august 11, 2016 – august 24, 2016

BALtICS(Continued from page 1) As EU presidency chair Estonia to put e-commerce and EU border security in spotlight u

90peopleinBrusselsandthenumberwillnowgoupto200,whichistheaveragenumberof employees for a presidingcountry,” notes Kristo Pollu,deputydirectorforEuropean

UnionAffairsinGovernmentOffice.

AndthosealreadyinBrus-selsofficeswillneedaddition-altraining,Urminsists.“Itisimportantthatthepeoplewhowill be leading the workinggroups have an understand-ingof whatawaitsthem,”she

underlined.TheEstoniangovernment

hasalreadycarefullyselectedofficials who will go throughtrainingtobefitforthetask.

Each member state is EU’s stakeholder

Althoughthetraditionof bringingeventstothepresid-ing country has been criti-cisedbysomeasanunneces-sary and costly relic of thepast, Estonian Ambassadorin the Permanent Represen-tationinBrusselsMattiMaa-sikas vehemently disagreeswiththistake.

“It(presidency)isourre-sponsibility, it is our thing.Member states are the ulti-mate stakeholders in the EUand no one state can be putaside in the EU legislativeprocess. Because of this sta-tus, each state is entitled torotation in EU presidency,”hesays.

CallingEU“anexception-al phenomenon,” he says theexperience Estonia garnersduringthepreparationbringsalotof excitementtoall.

“We have noticed thatthosewhochairEUpresiden-cyforfirsttimehavemoreen-thusiasmanddedicationthansomeof theolderEUmemberstates,”Maasikassays.

Good presidency boosts chair’s credibility

Along the way, Estoniawill be glancing over itsshoulder to its neighboursLithuania and Latvia, whichwere entrusted with the EUpresidency stint in 2013 and2015respectively.

“We have, of course,looked into their successfulpresidenciesandaretryingtobe on par,” Maasikas empha-sised.

Themainchallengeaheadfor Estonian officials is toprove their country capableof beingarole leaderfortheentire European Union, asEstonia’s reputation will beshaped by the country’s abil-ity to manage the immenseadministrative and leader-ship-requiringtasksintakingtheEUlegislativeprocessfor-ward,officialsareconvinced.

“Good presidency givesgood credit to the country,”says Kristo Pollu. “Officialswith good networks can ad-vanceourinterestsmuchbet-ter in the future; presidencyisaninvestmentinourfunc-tioningasaEUmemberstate

andinvestmentinourpublicservice,”headded.

Accordingtohim,Estoniawillhavetoaddress400to500EU legislative pieces, eitheralready crafted by the Euro-peanlegislatorsorabouttobetakenon.

“As a matter of fact, theyencompass a wide range of topics — from education andculture to olive oil to foreignpolicy and so on. We can-notpicksomeissuesandputthem above the rest — wehavetomoveallof themfor-ward,” Pollu underscored toTheBalticTimes.“Howmanyof themwillcomeintoeffectunderourpresidencywillbean absolute indicator of ourwork by which we will bejudged,”Maasikaschimedin.

Estonia to put several is-sues in spotlight

AndalthoughEstoniahastobegoodwithalltheissues,evenaddressingolivecultiva-tionissues,whichisfarfroman everyday issue in EstoniabutimportanttothesouthernEU member states, the gov-ernment is set to highlightsomeissuesitfindsnecessarytoputinthespotlight.

“The Estonian govern-menthasfocusedoneconomy

and growth — internal mar-ket, digital internal market,andenergyunion.Debateonthefutureof theEUwillpro-vide important elements tothepresidencyprioritiesandtheattentionwillbeonexter-nal and internal security aswellasasingleforeignpolicyand neighbouring policy,”saidPollu,whoisresponsiblefor the content of the Esto-nianpresidencyprogramme.

As Estonia has gainedwide recognition as a stateof expanded e-services ande-governance, this topic willbestronglyembeddedwithinthe Estonian EU presidencyprogramme.

“In all policy areas, wewanttobringupthetopicof information society — howcantheEUimprovecompeti-tiveness and innovation inany field with proper infor-mation technologies, be itagriculture or environment,nottomentiontheuseof digi-talsignaturewhichisadailythinginEstonia,”Pollupoint-edout.

Importance of EU bor-dering regions

At the presidency’s cusp,therefore,willbethepackageof the Digital Single Market

ande-commerce,AudiovisualMediaServicesDirective.

“Wewanttotakeallthe topics forwardasachairisexpectedto,”Pollusaid.

The aim of the DigitalSingle Market directive is totear down regulatory wallsandmovefrom28EUnationalmarkets toasingleoneabid-ingbythesamerules.Thisis,infact,whattheECcommis-sioner and vice-president of the European Commission,AndrusAnsip,whoisformerprime minister of Estonia,is tackling, as he finds theproblem of small businessesstruggling in the EU to becaused by the different busi-ness regulation environmentparticularlyacute.

Unitary foreign policyand the East PartnershipProgrammewillbeontopof the EU presidency agenda,too,withEstoniareadytopaymoreattentiontotheregionsbordering Europe. “It is im-portant to have stability inour neighbouring countriesto prevent crises and facili-tate co-operation. Of course,we all would like to seegrowth of welfare, democra-cy,theruleof lawinthecoun-tries surrounding us,” Polluexplained.

Tiina Urm is head of communication for Estonia’s EU presidency.

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borderingEurope.”

righttoallowthesaleof falsi-fied wines. Furthermore, wenever intended to do so. Infact, this was company’s po-sition, however, we have notaccepted this argument,” theembassysaid.

Throughtheembassy’sin-tensiveefforts,relevantGeor-gian authorities addressedthe European Commissionvia official channels on thismatter inorder toundertakeall necessary measures tostop these unlawful actions,a counselor at the embassysaid. The Georgian side hasenjoyedalongstandingtradi-tion of cordial cooperationwith Estonian business cir-

clesaswellaswiththeappro-priate Estonian authoritiesandislookingforwardtocon-tinuing in the same manner,theembassysaid.

The Estonian Veterinaryand Food Board is lookingintothesaleof theBulgarianwineandinspectingstoresof other chains besides Selver.It also is cooperating withtheGeorgianembassyinthismatter, head of the agency’smarket regulation depart-mentAinZereensaid.

The European Commis-sion notified Estonia that ithadcometotheCommission’sattention that a Bulgarianwine by the name of Kvanz-

kariwhichimitatestheGeor-giancontrolledappellationof origin Khvanchkara was onsaleinEstonianstores.

“Accordingtotheinforma-tionprovidedbytheGeorgianauthorities, a wine that imi-tates the Georgian wine ‘Kh-vanchkara’ is sold under thename ‘Kvanzkari,’notably inthecityof Tartu,Estonia, inthe retail chain Salver and

possibly in other locations,”the notification misspellingthenameof Selverreads.

Pursuant to the Associa-tion Agreement between theEuropeanUnionandGeorgia,theEuropeanUnionwillpro-tect the geographical indica-tionsforwineslistedinanan-nex to the agreement whichare registered by Georgia.ThenameKhvanchkaraisin-

cludedinthatlist.“Selling that product un-

der the name ‘Kvanzkari’with use of Georgian script,even though information onthelabelrevealsthatthewineis from Bulgaria, appears toviolate the provisions of thetermsof theprotectioncitedabove,”theCommissionsaid.

WeherebynotifythatinaccordancewithSection204(1)(b)of theBVIBusiness

CompaniesAct2004,ISINGROUPLIMITEDincorporatedontheterritoryof theBritishVirginIslandsisundergoingtheprocessof voluntaryliquidation.Thevoluntaryliquidation

startedon18dayof July,2016andtheliquidatorisLAMWINGCHUENof 1Floor,19WingYiuStreet,toKWAWAN,KLN

(Continued from page 1) Estonia: Georgian embassy says Bulgarian imitation wine must be pulled from stores u

4 The BalTic Times august 11, 2016 – august 24, 2016q&A

Linas Jegelevicius

Heiscalledoneof theris-ingsocialdemocraticstarsof theyounggenerationandper-haps therefore his “straight-to-the-point” rhetoric, filledwith far-reaching ideas and,often,arrowsof criticismforseniorfellowpartymembers.“A lot of party senior mem-berswereconvertedtosocialdemocratsovernightwithoutreally knowing the full spec-trum of values social demo-cratsinEuropedefend.Some-timeswefaceawkwardsitua-tionswhensomeof theseniorcolleaguesrefusetostandforcertain human rights,” Gin-tautasPaluckas,deputymay-orof Vilniusandsecretaryof the Social Democratic Partyof Lithuania, acknowledgedtoTheBalticTimes.

If we were to speak of Vilnius in a broader con-text, how specific are the problems of the Lithuanian capital in comparison with the Latvian capital, riga, and the Estonian capital, tallinn?

I would name two things.First, Riga and Tallinn areboth capital and seaport cit-ies,whichmakesthemsingledirection for foreign and do-mestic investments inLatviaand Estonia. Almost half of the population in the coun-trieslivesinthesetwocities.Despite the fact that the cityof Vilnius (and region) pro-ducesone-quarterof theLith-uanian economy’s output,it, unlike Riga and Tallinn,needs to compete for publicmoneyfromstatebudgetwithother medium-sized cities of Lithuania. It causes a situa-tion when our capital city isheavily underfinanced whencomparedwithRigaandTal-linn. For example, in 2015,Vilnius received 700 eurosper person living in the cityfrom state budget, whereasreceivedRiga1000euros,andTallinn1100euros.

The second thing thatmakes Vilnius a bit specialisthelowpopulationdensity.In the last 20 years, Vilniusexpandedtoitsoutskirtsleav-ing blank “gaps” of city ter-ritory, which “stretched” thecity’sinfrastructureandpub-lictransportationcosts.

Poor planning of Vilnius’previous expansion will con-tinuetohaveanimpactinthenear future as public invest-mentsneededto improve lifequalityof those livinginthecity’soutskirtsexceedscapa-bilitiesof citybudget.

As the deputy Vilnius mayor, you are in charge of the city’s social affairs, health policies, and public order. Can you please elabo-rate on what is characteris-tic to the fields in the Lithu-anian capital?

Vilnius is the only grow-ing city in terms of popula-tion in Lithuania. This is asad fact for Lithuania, butgives an opportunity to thecity. When other cities facefinancial tensions effectivelyemploying infrastructure of schools and kindergartens

duetodecreasingnumbersof children, Vilnius fights wait-ing lines to have a child en-rolledinakindergarten.

A growing population at-tractsbusinessesandforeigninvestments. The unemploy-ment rate in Vilnius floatsaround 5 per cent and theaverage wage exceeds Lithu-ania’saverageby20percent.However, despite economicgrowth,stilltoomanypeoplelacksufficientincometosur-viveintheLithuaniancapitalcity. More than 20,000 peopleeachmonth receive financialaidprovidedby thecitybud-get. More than 4,000 live inapartments provided by themunicipality.

Accordingtopublichealthstatistics,inmostfieldsVilni-us outruns other Lithuaniancities.Duetoitsgreenery(50percentof thecityiscoveredwith trees) and a wide rangeof health care services —bothpublicandprivate—allof thatenablescitytoprovideits citizens a healthy livingenvironment.

The tendencies in thehealthcare sector do not dif-fermuchfromotherwesterncities.Theageingpopulationbuildsupdemandinparticu-lar services — geriatrics, re-habilitation after surgeries,nursing at home. Lately wehave also observed an influxof patients from other cities,which requires us to ensuresufficient investment in theinfrastructure of hospitals,polyclinics, and medical per-sonnelaswell.

WhentalkingaboutpublicorderIalwaysliketoempha-sise that Vilnius, accordingto the statistics, is the safestcapital city in all of Europe.Violent crime rates are lowand decreasing. If you con-sidermovingtolivetoasafe

place,Vilniusfitsperfectly.the Council of Vilnius

municipality is credited for a set of reforms in the sec-tor of social affairs. Can you speak of them a little, please?

Therearethingsthat,un-fortunately,havenotchangedabitduringthelast25years.Iamtalkingaboutfosterhomeswhere orphans and kids tak-enfromtheirfamiliesonthegrounds of their psychologi-calandphysicalsafety.

When entering office ayearandahalf agoweprom-ised to ourselves that it is ashame for the state and themunicipality to have largestate-owned foster homes,where kids do not receivethe best care and have nochance of growing up likeequals with other kids whodo not suffer the loss of par-ents in their lives. In short,we decided to change thingsfor the better. After a widediscussion with NGOs andother institutions concernedaspecialprogrammewasde-veloped. It says that by 2018therewillbenofosterhomesinVilniusandfivenewsocialservice centres for familieswith low social skills will beestablished in Vilnius. Theprogramme is being success-fully implemented since itsadoption.

You spent some time back in the old days as an emigrant in London. How was the experience? what have you learnt from it?

Imustconfess I loveLon-don. It’s a vibrant, multina-tional city with abundantcultural life and successfulbusinesses. I’ve spent almosta year there improving myEnglish. Also I had a chancetoworkataconstructionsite.I would call it a valuable ex-perience,indeed.Notallof itwas very pleasant, but valu-able,forsure.

ForthepastdecadeinLith-uaniawehavebeenobservingan unprecedented level of emigration—peopleareleav-ingtheirhomelandwithhopeof findingabetterlifeabroad.However,lifeinemigrationisnot easy. Not only economi-cally,butalsopsychologically.Tensionsinsocietiesbetweenlocals and immigrants exist.Justashortwhileago,wewit-nessed Brexit, which mainly

wascausedbysuchtensions.Almost 15 years ago, whenworking in construction inLondon,Ididfacesuchanun-welcomingfeelingfromsomeof myBritishcolleaguesandIdidnotlikeit.ButasIsaid,IloveLondondespiteitsocca-sionalexcessivenationalism.

High emigration plagu-ing Lithuanian demo-graphics and economy is the biggest headache for the state and the political parties, the Social Demo-crats (SD), too. Do you be-lieve things can be turned around? How? How is your party addressing problem number one?

We have lost a quarter of our population during thelast20years.Itisthebiggestloss for a country in Europeduring peacetime. There areacoupleobviousreasonswhypeopleleaveLithuania.

The average wage in ourcountry is only one-third of the European average wage.Regarding minimum wage,weareattheendof thelistof EU countries together withLatvia and Romania. It wasestimated that if Lithuania’seconomykeepsgrowingatthepaceof 5percentperyearandGermany’seconomystaysthesame, our wages will reachGermany’s approximately 25yearsfromnow.So,themainreasonforemigrationisobvi-ous — people look for betterwork and a higher incomeabroad.Wecan’tpreventthat.However, we, I mean politi-cians,areabletodiminishthenegativeeffectof lowincomefor families and households,offeringawiderangeof pub-lic services provided by thestate (sometimes it is calledwelfare state). Simply speak-ing,even if peopleearn less,theyalsospend less,becausethe state takes care of pay-ingtheirbills forhealthcare,kindergartens,andotherser-vicesforlowincomefamiliesand single individuals. Solv-ing the issue of low incomeandincomeinequalityiskeyto tackling emigration. Still,I have to say, not much hasbeendoneinthisfieldsofar.Lackof leadershipandeffortcoordinationbetweeninstitu-tionsshowslittleprogressindealingwithhighemigration.

what are the other ma-jor problems that you be-

lieve a new government has to take on immediately af-ter the parliamentary elec-tions in early October?

Education.Qualityof sec-ondaryandhigheducationinLithuaniaisatitslowest.Thenumber of children is con-stantly decreasing, however,the network of schools hasnot changed much. With de-creasing financial resources,the number of schools andteachers remains nearly in-tact.Itisnotthewayitshouldbe.

Not surprisingly, ourteachers complain about lowwages and young, progres-sivepeopledonotchoosethecareer of a teacher. In ad-dition to that, the situationin high education system isevenworse.Fortysevenhighschools and universities forlessthan3millionpopulationiswaytoomany.Thesolutiontotheproblemsintheeduca-tion system can’t wait anylonger.It’snotachoiceforthenew government whether todealwiththisissueornot.Itmustbedealtwith.

You have to agree that Lithuanians overwhelm-ingly distrust authorities, be it the government or parliament. therefore, the popular saying among the ordinary people: “whoever comes to power will contin-ue stealing…” Does it hurt you? How is it possible to change the approach?

Yes,ithurtsme.Theonlyway to change it is to leadby example. Do not steal; donotallowotherstostealand,eventually, trust will come.It’sassimpleasthat.Itneedstime, but there is no otherway.

As social democrats are part of the ruling coalition, the term of which is about to end now, let me ask, what do you believe are the big-gest accomplishments of the government?

Lithuaniaisnotanislandanymore concerning energysupply sources. Electricitylines with Poland and Swe-den, a Liquid Natural gasterminal,andagaspipecon-necting our grid with thePoland gas grid is quite anachievement. It allowed forthedecreaseof pricesof elec-tricityandgasforhouseholdsand businesses. During thelast four years people withlowest income should haveexperienced some improve-ments—minimumwagewasincreasedfourtimesandpen-sionstwice.Salariesforteach-ers, nurses, civil servants inarts and culture increased15 to 20 per cent. The aver-age wage in Lithuania rosealmost 20 per cent as well.Unemploymentratesareatafour-yearlow.OurobligationstoNATOpartnersarealmostfulfilled—thebudgetforthecountry’sdefensesystemhasalmostreachedtherequired2percentof GDP.

Can you point openly to any of its failures or short-comings?

‘Changes in Lithuanian Social Democratic Party are inevitable if we do not want to go extinct’

Gintautas Paluckas is deputy mayor of Vilnius and secretary of the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania.

Pho

to :

LSv

eIK

AtA

.Lt

“Despitethefactthatthecityof

Vilnius(andregion)producesone-quarter

of theLithuanianeconomy’soutput,it,unlikeRigaandTallinn,theother

Balticcapitals,needstocompeteforpublicmoneyfromstatebudget

withothermedium-sizedcitiesof

Lithuania.ItcausesasituationwhenVilniusisheavily

underfinancedwhencomparedwithRiga

andTallinn.Forexample,in2015,

Vilniusreceived700eurosperpersonlivinginthecity

fromstatebudget,whereasreceived

Riga1000euros,andTallinn1100euros.”

5The BalTic Times august 11, 2016 – august 24, 2016

BALtICS

I am sure our opponentswillbepointing to themdur-ing the election campaign,buttheeducationsystemandthe phenomenon of emigra-tiondidnotreceivesufficientpolitical attention and effort,torepeatmyself.

You’ve told Lithuanian press on several occasions that the SD Party is “in-evitably” on the brink of change. what do you mean?

Classic parties like socialdemocrats and conservativesmight be called the aristoc-racyof thepoliticalclass.Butaristocracy is long gone inEurope, because they failedtolistentothesoundsof com-ing change and refused toadapt to new circumstances.Changes in the SD party areinevitable if we do not wantto go extinct. These are hardwords,butanhonestwarningtoallof us.Thewaysweorga-nise our activities, the wayswereachpeople,thewayswedefineourstrategies—every-thingneedstorespondtothecallof presenttimes.Podem-osinSpain,SyrizainGreece,Marine Le Pen and National

Front in France, JaroslawKaczynski and Law and Jus-ticeinPoland—alltheseandsimilar parties and popularmovementsaresqueezingtra-ditional left and right wingparties out of the politicalarena.

How open is the party in adopting different views?

We are called democratsnot without a reason. Differ-ent views are welcome. Of course, sometimes politicaltensions rise because of dif-ferent views and ambitions,butitisquitenormalfordem-ocraticparties.

Against the backdrop of western European so-cial democratic parties, the Lithuanian social demo-cratic party is rather con-servative, especially on a

range of social issues, in-cluding legalising cohabi-tation, let alone same-sex partnerships, artificial insemination, and some other hot social issues. Is the stance only about the piety of your party’s leader Algirdas Butkevicius, who is also the Prime minister? Do you think the party’s policies are set to change on these issues soon?

Iwouldconsiderthisare-sult of both pragmatism andthelackof rootsof Europeansocial democracy. A lot of party senior members wereconvertedtosocialdemocratsin one night without reallyknowing the full spectrumof valuessocialdemocratsinEurope defend and reach toimplementinrespectfulsoci-eties. So, sometimes we faceawkwardsituationswhencol-leagues of social democratsrefuse to stand for certainhuman rights. The secondreasonisverypragmatic.Sur-veys indicate that the major-ityof Lithuania’spopulationdoes not support cohabita-tion, let alone same-sex mar-riage.So,itisveryconvenientnot to stand (lead) for issuesthatsocietyvaguelysupports.Thecomingnewpoliticalgen-erationwillsortthesethingsout.

Since our newspaper covers all three Baltic States, is there anything that you believe Lithuania ought to learn from Latvia and Estonia?

In my opinion, Lithuania

andLatviasharealotof simi-larities, but Estonia differsquite a lot. It is not a secretthatevenpoliticiansinLithu-aniaenvyEstoniansfortheirgovernment’s fierce creativ-ityandthespeedof policyim-plementation. Splendid mar-keting abilities also help tobuildthisimpression,butthetruthis—theymovequickly.This is what we currentlylack—creativityandspeedinimplementingdecisions.

You’re one of the rising SD party stars of the young generation. what is your vision of Lithuania, let us say, in 2025 should you be part of government then?

The most important taskfor politicians of the younggenerationistofindawaytostoptheleakageof ourpeopletoothercountries.Thismightbe done not only by improv-ing economic conditions, butgaining people’s trust thatwe, politicians, really care,that we will deal with the is-sues, that we know how todo that. I see Lithuania withcompletely diversified eco-nomics,relyingontheexportof goods and services to thecountriesyoucanpredictandhaving civilised business re-lations.Theeducationsystemis reformed, fits the numberof children,andprovidesedu-cationof highquality.Societystarts healing and losing itsaggressive and xenophobicpast. Creativeness and inno-vationaremetandwelcomedin every field of the publicandprivatesectors.IseeLith-uaniasafe,relaxed,andreadyfortheleapintothefuture.

BNS/tBt StaffResettlement of refu-

gees to Estonia from Turkeyis dragging on because theTurkish authorities are notallowing people to leave thecountry after the attemptedcoup, Estonian Interior Min-isterHannoPevkursays.

“It’s not about the Esto-nianstate,wehavemadeourdecisions,” Pevkur said inresponse to a question aboutthe reasons why the arrivalof the firstrefugees tobere-settledfromTurkeyhasbeendelayed.

“It’s directly connectedwith the attempted coup inTurkey,” Pevkur said. “Thepracticeof differentcountriesshowsthatTurkeyblocksthe

movement of people out of thecountry.”Thereareotherreasonsaswell,headded.

“If thepeopleaboutwhom(resettlement) decisions havebeen made are still ready tocome to Estonia and Turkeyallowsthemtoleave,theywillarriveinEstonia.Allfurtherdecisions are on hold,” Pe-vkursaid.

EU leaders and Turkeyagreed to a comprehensiveplan in March that opens asafeandlegalroutetotheEUfor Syrian refugees while re-ducing irregular migration.The agreement builds on theone-for-one principle agreeduponbetweenEUleadersandTurkey earlier, meaning thatall new irregular migrants

crossing from Turkey intothe Greek islands will be re-turned to Turkey; for everySyrian returned to Turkeyfrom the Greek islands, an-otherSyrianwillberesettledfrom Turkey to the EU. Thistemporary link between re-settlement and return is fea-sible up to a limit of 72,000usingtheEU’sexistingreset-tlement and relocation com-mitments.

The head of Estonia’sHarkumigrantdetentioncen-tre,PartelPreinvalts,wasona mission in Turkey earlierthis year to establish in An-kara a co-operation networkfor facilitating resettlement.In the course of the missionthatendedonJune30.

Estonian minister: Arrival of refugees from Turkey delayed by attempted coup

BNS/LetA/tBt Staff

In the Latvian exclusiveeconomic zone, a RussianKilo class military subma-rine was detected on Aug. 4,the National Armed Forcesreported.

The submarine was de-tected seven nautical milesfrom Latvia’s territorial wa-ters.

As of June 20, Russianmilitary aircraft and shipshave been detected near Lat-

vian borders 395 times thisyear.

National Armed Forceshave identified 349 Russianplanes, and 46 instances of Russian ships approachingLatvia’sseaborder.

Russian aircraft fly overneutralBalticSeawatersnearLatvia’s territorial watersmainly with transpondersturned off, without a flightplan,andtheydonotanswerto radio communications of civil airspace control, thus

causing concern that civilaviationmaybeendangered.

TheLatvianarmedforcesregularly inform the publicthrough social media aboutRussianplanesandships ap-proaching Latvian waters.These include fighter jets,transportandreconnaissanceplanes, ships of the frigateand corvette class, subma-rinesandtheirsupportships,andothermilitaryvessels.

Russian submarine detected near Latvia

“Inmyopinion,Lithuania

andLatviasharealotof similarities,butEstoniadiffersquitealot.Itisnot

asecretthateven

politiciansinLithuania

envyEstoniansfortheir

government’sfiercecreativity

andthespeedof policy

implementation.Splendid

marketingabilitiesalsohelp

tobuildthis

impression,butthetruthis—theymovequickly.

Thisiswhatwecurrently

lack—creativityandspeedin

implementingdecisions.”

BNS/tBt Staff

VILNIUS - Law enforce-ment officials on Aug. 8brought formal suspicionsof influence peddling andlarge-scale bribery againstVytautas Gapsys, the Lithu-anian Labour Party’s deputychairman who has recentlyresigned as a member of theSeimas,intheirinvestigationof alleged political corrup-tion.

“Suspicionsof large-scalebribery and influence ped-

dling have been brought,”Rita Stundiene, spokeswom-an for the Prosecutor Gener-al’sOffice,toldBNS.

Gapsys denies the suspi-cionsagainsthim.

“I did not commit theseoffenses,”hesaidafterbeingquestionedbyprosecutors.

The prosecutors suspectthat Gapsys accepted 25,000euros, in the form of dis-counts on political advertis-ing,inexchangefordecisionsthat were beneficial to MG

Baltic,oneof Lithuania’sbig-gest manufacturing, trade,realestate,andmediagroups.

As part of the pre-trialinvestigation, bribery suspi-cionshavealsobeenbroughtagainst Eligijus Masiulis,a former leader of the Lib-eral Movement and a formermember of the parliament,andMGBalticVice-presidentRaimondas Kurlianskis, whoheads thegroup’smediaseg-ment.

Lithuania: Influence peddling, bribery suspicions brought against ex-MP Gapsys

BNS/LetA/reuterS/tBt Staff

Germany and the Nether-landswillinOctobertestjointoperationsof theirPatriotairand missile defense systemsinwhatcouldbeamodel formultilateral deployments toPolandortheBalticStatesincoming years, a high-rankedGermangeneralsaid.

TheOctobertestwillvali-date a new joint concept of operationsforairandmissiledefence developed by Ger-many and the Netherlandsoverthepastyear,thefirstof

itskindinEurope,BrigadierGeneral Michael Gschoss-mann,commanderof ground-based units for Germany’sAir Force, told Reuters in aninterview.

Morethan40interceptorswill be fired during an exer-cise at a NATO site in Cretein early October that willinclude 300 German and 100Dutch soldiers, as well as 10USsoldiersandaUSAegisde-stroyer,accordingtoGermanandUSofficials.

Baltic state officials wel-comed US deployment of a

PatriotbatterytoEasternEu-rope during a series of exer-cisesearlierthissummer,butthe symbolic value would begreaterif thedeploymentin-volvedmorethanonecountry,Gschossmannsaid.

“Wecouldofferevenmorereassuranceandsendapoliti-calsignalif wetookamixedtask force with German,Dutch, and US Patriot sys-tems—apurelydefensiveas-set—andsetitsomewhereinPoland or the Baltic States,”ReutersquotedGschossmannassaying.

Patriot missile defense systems might be deployed in Baltics - German general

BNS/tBt Staff

VILNIUS - LithuanianAgriculture Minister Virgin-ija Baltraitiene says that shehas no grounds to fire JonasMilius, director of the StateFood and Veterinary Service

(VMVT),butshehasadvisedhimtostepdown.

“I spoke to the directortodayandtoldhimthatIsawnopossibilityforhimtostayin the job,” the minister toldBNSonAug.8.

Lawenforcementofficialssuspect that the VMVT cov-ered up information aboutbacterial contamination inproducts made by Judex, aKaunas-based frozen foodcompany.

Lithuanian agrimin calls on chief vet to step down

vol. 20 #884AuGuSt 11 , 2016 – AuGuSt 24, 2016 BALTIC BUSINESS

Stuart Garlick

Scientific research oftenattracts dedicated-but-intro-verted professionals, whoseektoadvancehumanprog-ressratherthantogrowtheirpersonal networks. MarkoRussiver,oneof thefoundersof sciencecollaborationstart-up Guaana, saw this at first-handinapreviousrole.“Dur-ingtheproject,Inoticedhowclosed the scientists were to-wardseachotherandhowbu-reaucratictheprocesswastoactuallystartanewresearchproject. One incident reallystuckoutforme—Isawtwoscientists passing each otherin the hallway. I had spokenwith both of them by then,and knew that they could bereally useful to one another.Yet theydidn’tevenknowof eachother’sexistence.”

Stories about startups of-fering a stake in their busi-nesstoinvestorsare10-a-pen-ny, but rarer are accounts of technology companies will-ing to give away shares forfree. This is what Guaana, ascientific community in theearly stages of its develop-ment, is doing. The Tallinn-basedventureisgivingquali-fied and verified scientiststhe opportunity to apply fora slice of the company, at nocharge,andisgivingaway10per cent of the organisationtoitsuserbase.

The venture has sparkedobvious questions, such aswhyafor-profit,privatebusi-ness would voluntarily sur-renderatenthof itself with-out asking for any financialreturn. Guaana, which aimsto bring scientists togetheronaspecialistnetwork,isal-ready “free, forever,” accord-ingtoitshomepage.

Edgar Aronov, a cofound-er, responded to this by say-ing, “We are rewarding ourearly adopters, giving themfreeaccesstotestournewfea-tures and an opportunity toinfluence Guaana’s roadmap.We want to give scientistsownership as an inspirationto participate in the processsowecansucceedtogetherinbringingforthachangethat’slongoverdue.”

WithAronovandRussivertalking of 100,000 verifiedmembers, there is evidencethat the application is gain-ingweightasaneffectivewayof bringingdisparatepartiestogether.

Scientistsof alldisciplineshave always collaborated onmajor projects, but wherepotentially-exciting under-takings fall down, accordingtoRussiver,is“thelackof ac-cesstoinformationanddata.”He continued, “They onlyhaveanoverviewof researchthat has already been pub-lished in academic journals.Apublishedresearchpaperisa summary of all the experi-ments and research conduct-edonaspecifictopic,andanextremely valuable solutionthathasstoodthetestof thetime. However, a lot could belearned from the research

processes leading to the pa-per.Havingaccess to that in-formation would acceleratetheresearchprocessalotandpotentiallyinspirenewmean-

ingfulresearch.”This is all well and good,

butcommunicationplatformsalready exist for all profes-sional networks, includingFacebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,Google+, and of course goodoldemail.

Russiver attempted toclarify why, in his view, sci-ence benefited from a newplatform.

“Arecordof thescientific

process that includes every-thingfrompreliminaryideasandresearchtomethodsandanalysis, from laboratorynotebooksanddatatonullre-sults and proposed contribu-tions.Byintegratinganarrayof softwareanddataformatsused in science, we can pro-vide a uniform digital foot-printof thescientificprocessthat is human and machinereadable.Ipersonallybelieveachangelikethiscanacceler-ate the discoveries virtuallyinallfields.”

“I think focus is impor-tant. What has proven to beuseful for our community isthesimplicityof findingpeo-ple based on their expertisein Guaana. One importantdifference is that after kick-ing off a project in Guaanayoucanquicklyfindnewcol-laboratorswiththeexpertiseyouareinneedof andinvitethemtoanongoingprojectontheplatformwithease.”

Asfortheshareoffer,thiscould be seen, cynically, as agimmick to generate inter-est in a new company, if theshares were to have a lowervalue than others. Russiverexplained, though, that thelegalrightsof thefreeshare-holders will be the same asthose of anyone who boughtinto the company. “It took awhile forusto figureoutthelegal side of things, becausethis kind of act is, to ourknowledge, unprecedented,butwith(Estoniancompany)Funderbeam’s help we man-agedtofindawaytomakeithappen.”

“Once the ownership ishanded out it will belong tothe interested party and itwill be transferable as anysimilar stakeholding, sub-

ject to articles of associa-tion(AoA)andshareholders’agreement(SHA)restrictionsastheshareholdersmayhavedecided.Thevotingrightsre-mainthesameinallcases.”

As with many early-stagestartups, Guaana (Guaana.com) is in the process of buildingupitsuserbaseandis focusing at present on thesizeof itscommunity,ratherthanmakingprofits.Thebot-tomlinewillbecomemoreim-portant in the coming years,which is why it might beconsidered surprising thereis currently no facility tocrowdfund scientific projectsthrough the network. “Wewant tosolveoneproblemata time,” Russiver responded.“Fundingisamajorissue,yetwhat needs to change first isthe mentality and methodol-ogy,asalotof fundingissuesare caused by inefficienciesand unnecessary bureaucra-cy.”

“I believe a shift needs tohappen, just likeithappenedin software developmentwhen the open-source move-ment gained momentum. Itcompletelyredefinedhowde-velopers work today — theyunderstand the benefits of beingopenaboutthecode,ashundreds of people aroundthe world can help themadvance their work or getinspired by it to build some-thing on top of their code.Thisiswhathastohappentoscientific research before westart solving the funding is-sues.Itwillresultinwastingfewer resources, accelerat-ingtheresearchprocess,andsomeof thefundingproblemswillsolvethemselves.”

“First we need momen-tum.After thatwewill focus

onsciencefunding.It’sagar-gantuanundertaking,butwehaveafewtheoriesonhowtosolvethis.”

Regardless of good inten-tions, giving equity awayfor free does not help bankaccounts in the short term.Every venture capitalist willalways ask the same ques-tion, “How can your startupmake money?” Russiver hasa plan. “Guaana is free for-everforanyindividualscien-tistaroundtheworldandwe

willkeepit thisway.Guaanawill make profits by provid-ingpremiumtoolsthatwon’tpaywall the scientist but in-stead empower their actionsormaketheirworkconsider-ablyeasier.Ican’tgointode-tailsrightnow,butthescien-tistswe’vetalkedtoaboutourmonetisationplanshavebeenexcited and said they wouldbebeneficialtotheirwork.”

Why this Estonian startup is giving away free shares

Edgar Aronov, a Guaana cofounder

PH

OT

O :

ww

w.t

wIt

tE

r.C

Om

“Oneincidentreallystuckoutforme-Isawtwoscientists

passingeachotheronthe

hallway.Ihadspokenwithbothof thembythen,and

knewthattheycouldbereallyuseful

tooneanother.Yettheydidn’tevenknowof eachother’sexistence.”

“Aswithmany

early-stagestartups,Guaana

(Guaana.com)isin

theprocessof buildingupitsuserbaseandisfocusingatpresenton

thesizeof itscommunity,ratherthan

makingprofits.

Thebottomlinewill

becomemoreimportantinthecoming

years,whichiswhyitmightbe

consideredsurprising

thereiscurrentlyno

facilitytocrowdfundscientificprojects

throughthenetwork.”

7The BalTic Times august 11, 2016 – august 24, 2016

BALtIC BuSINeSS

BNS/tBt Staff

The Estonian FinanceMinistry forecasts a rise inconsumer prices in Augustandageneralpriceriseinau-tumn,astheenergypricede-crease has slowed down andtobaccopricesaregoingup.

The price of electric-ity came down in July fromJune’shighlevelthatresultedfrom maintenance work atNordicpowerplants,KristjanPungas,analystattheminis-try’sfiscalpolicydepartment,saidinapressrelease.

Data of Statistics Estoniashow that consumer pricesremained at the previous

month’slevelinJulyandtheannualpricedecreaseslowedto 0.1 per cent from 0.4 percentinJune.Intheeurozoneprice rise accelerated to 0.2percentasfoodbecamemoreexpensive, preliminary fig-uresshow.

Compared to July 2015,goodswere0.2percentmoreexpensive and services were0.5 per cent cheaper. Regu-latedpricesof goodsandser-vices have fallen by 1.3 percentandnon-regulatedpriceshave risen by 0.4 per cent inannualcomparison,StatisticsEstoniasaidonFriday,Aug.5.

Estonian FinMin expects prices to take upward turn in August

BNS/tBt Staff

HuaweiTechnologyVilni-us,ownedbyChina’stelecom-munications giant Huawei,generated revenue of 22.021millioneuroslastyear,upby79.8percent from12.247mil-

lioneurosin2014.The company’s net profit

declined by 42.3 per cent to214,900eurosin2015year-on-year,HuaweiTechnologyVil-nius said in a report filed totheCentreof Registers.

“Theincreaseof saleswas

mainly due to higher salesof products for consumers,”readstheannualreport.

Dutch-registered Hua-wei Technologies is the onlyshareholder of the Lithu-aniancompany.

Huawei Technology Vilnius’ revenue up 80 per cent

BNS/tBt Staff

Over 1.8 million euroshavebeenreservedforLithu-anian MPs who lose theirmandates in the upcomingelections, as well as theirassistants and secretaries,LietuvosZiniosdailysaid.

The severance pays toMPs whose mandate willexpire is determined by theSeimasstatute.MPsreceiveaseverancepaythatequalsav-erage monthly wages multi-pliedbythenumberof yearsof hisuninterruptedterminparliament. The pay cannot

be lower than two or higherthan six average monthlysalaries. Currently, an MP’saverage salary is 2,531 eurosbefore taxes, however, theyreceivemore,astheyarealsopaidabonusforyearsof pub-licservice.

Inthe2008elections,67of Lithuania’s 141 parliamen-tarians were not re-elected,whilethenumberin2012was63. They received 587,000 eu-ros in severance pays eightyears ago and 840,000 eurosfour years ago, however, themonthly salaries were alsoloweratthetime.

1.8 mln euro planned for Lithuanian MPs’ severance pay

BNS/tBt Staff

Estonia has risen by onenotch,to38thposition,inthisyear’s logistics performancerankings of the World Bank,aheadof itsBalticneighbourLatviabutbelowLithuania.

Countries’ performancewasmeasuredusingsixcrite-

ria: customs, infrastructure,international shipments, lo-gistics competence, trackingandtracing,andtimeliness.

Estoniadidwellintimeli-nesswithascoreof 4.08pointsandreceivedthelowestscore,3.07 points, for internationalshipments.Lithuaniajumped17ranksto29thwhereasLat-

via fell seven ranks to 43rd.The top performers wereGermany, Luxembourg, Swe-den, and the Netherlands.The World Bank’s LogisticsPerformanceIndexmeasuredinternationalsupplychainef-ficiencyof 160countries.

Estonia rises one notch in World Bank’s logistics performance rankings

BNS/LetA/tBt Staff

Continuing discussionson increase of the minimumwage, social contributions inthis context will also grow,and it will be possible to re-vise social support in thefuture, said Latvian WelfareMinisterJanisReirs(Unity).

Reirs’ spokeswoman AijaBukova-Zidelunasaidthattheinformativereportonpropos-als for increase of the mini-mum wage will be revisedat the nearest National Tri-partite Co-operation Councilmeeting.It isplannedtopro-pose to raise the minimum

monthlywagefrom370eurosto 407 euros starting fromJan.1,2017.

Reirs said that the prior-ity is to reduce inequality. Araise of the minimum wageprovides significant supporttopeoplewith lowwages,es-pecially in specific regions.Atthesametime,theministerhasnodoubtsthattheimpactof theminimumwageshouldbe assessed in relation totaxes and allowances. Whenraising the minimum wage,socialcontributionswillalsoincreaseanditwouldbepos-sible to revise social allow-ances.

The State EmploymentAgency has studied the situ-ation with long-term unem-ployment, identifying obsta-cles for integrationof unem-ployedpeopleinthejobmar-ket.Oneof themainreasonspeoplerefusejoboffersistheinsufficient minimum wagethat does not compensate forcommutingcosts.

Asreported,FinanceMin-ister Dana Reizniece-Ozola(Greens and Farmers) doesnotsupportasteepriseintheminimumwage.

Reirs proposes to increase minimum monthly wage to 407 euros

8 The BalTic Times august 11, 2016 – august 24, 2016

rIo oLymPIC GAmeS

Linas Jegelevicius

The Latvian Olympianteam might be one of the ti-niest in the 2016 Rio Olym-pic Games, but as many of the sportsmen clinch top 10rankings in the respectivebranches of sport, Latviaexudes confidence in theirOlympians.Amongthesportsin which Latvians are par-ticipatingaretrackandfield,BMX and road cycling, wres-tling, canoeing, judo, tennis,beach volleyball, weightlift-ing, swimming, sailing, andshooting. The Baltic TimesspoketoAldonsVrublevskis,president of the Latvian Na-tionalOlympicCommittee.

How is the mood of the Latvian Olympian delega-tion? How did the prepara-tion for the rio Olympic Games go? what do you wish to have been better in the process?

The mood of the LatvianOlympic team Rio 2016 isgreatandeveryonecan’twaittostartinRio.Fromourside,theLatvianOlympicCommit-tee (LOC), we did everythingsothatthepreparationfortheOlympicGameswouldbethebestforourathletes.

How big is the Latvian Olympian delegation? Can you please break down the figures of the branches of sport?

TheLatvianOlympicteamconsists of 33 athletes repre-senting 12 different kinds of sports: athletics, BMX androad cycling, wrestling, ca-noeing, judo, tennis, beachvolleyball, weightlifting,swimming,sailing,shooting.

How much has the state and the national Olympic committee spent for the best athletes’ preparation, including the training

camps, stipends, etc?

It’s very hard to answerthe question of how muchthe state and the LOC havespent for the best athletes’preparation, because ath-letesgetfinancedbytheLOCthrough respective sportsfederations,as well as bythe Latvian Olympic union,Olympic Solidarity, LatvianOlympians social fund, mu-nicipals,sponsors,etc.Sotheinformation has to be gath-eredfromallthesources.ButIcansaythatourathletesgeteverything and the best thatthey need to prepare for theOlympics. InLatvia,wehavemonitary prizes for athleteswho perform outstandinglyintheOlympicGames,World,and European champion-ships.Forexample,firstplacecanearnthebestperformers142,288eurosfromthestateof Latvia.

Have all the Olympians made the trip to rio?

LatvianOlympiansflewtoRio in separate groups. Mostof themarealreadyinRio.

How do you believe the rio climatic conditions may influence the perfor-mance of Latvian athletes?

TheRioclimateisperfect

forourathletes,becausethereitisjust25degreesduringtheday and about 14 degrees atnight,justlikeinLatvia.

what is the medal count that you believe is reason-able to expect from the Olympians?

We don’t like to answerquestions about medals be-forethecompetitionsareover,but in the Latvian Olympicteamwehave10to12athletes

who are in the top 10 worldrankings, so we have somegood expectations. There areno goal for athletes from thestateortheLOC.

Is Latvia taking any pre-cautions addressing Zika and infectious virus fears in rio?

Yes, we have held a semi-nar for athletes about theZikavirusandinfectionrisksinRio.Ourathletesdon’thavefearandtheyareinformed.

Have you personally in-spected the rio sporting facilities? the living head-quarters of the Latvian del-egation? what impression did you get? what do you believe could have been bet-ter?

Two of our Deputy Chef deMissionshavespentquitesome time in Rio alreadyandtheydideverythingtheycouldtoensurethatthesitua-

tionatthelivingquartersandtraining facilities is the bestupon the athletes’ arrival.The situation in Rio beforetheGameswassimilartotheprevious Games. Every timesomething is not finished; itdoesgetreadyfortheopeningday, and Rio has not been anexceptiontotherule.

How big is the rio Olym-pian delegation compared to those in the past? Excuse my question, but are all the people in it necessary and won’t be mere Olympian tourists?

No, we have one of thesmallest delegations ever —just 33 athletes in 12 sports.To speak about Olympiantourism is not correct, be-cause, as I said, we have oneof thesmallest,butoneof thestrongestteamsever.

Latvian Olympic team: Small in size but hungry for medals

The Latvian Olympic team consists of 33 athletes representing 12 different kinds of sports.

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Lithuania’s hopes for itsfirst Rio Olympics medalwere dashed after Ruta Mei-lutyte, the gold winner inthe100metrebreaststrokein2012LondonOlympicGames,cameinseventhinthefinal.

Lilly King of the UnitedStates won the race on Mon-

day, Aug. 8, denying gold toRussia’s Yulia Efimova, thesteroid scandal-engulfedswimmer, who was greetedwith resounding boos fromtheRiodeJaneirocrowd.Ka-tieMeiliof theUnitedStatestookthebronze.

King won the race in1:04.93 minutes, Yefimovacame in at 1:05.50, and Meili

finishedat1:05.69.It was a huge disappoint-

ment for theLithuanianstarRutaMeilutyte,whofinishedseventhwiththetime1:07.32,almost four seconds behindthe world record that sheclaimedin2013.

After the final race, theLithuanianleft thepoolwithtearsinhereyes.

Lithuania’s biggest Olympic hope in tears, empty-handed

Ruta Meilutyte, the gold winner in the 100 metre breaststroke in 2012 London Olympic Games, came in seventh in Rio.

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Leila,Liina,andLilyLuik,marathonrunnersfromEsto-nia,arebelievedtobethefirsttripletstohaveevermadeittotheOlympicGames.

Through a Facebookpage called “Trio to Rio” theblonde, blue-eyed sisters, 30,have been earnestly reveal-ingtheirsometimesgruelingjourney to Brazil throughmanypostsandpictures.

Astonishingly, the sistersfrom the southern Estoniantownof Tartusignedupseri-

ouslywithlong-distancerun-ningjustameresixyearsago,inspiredbyLiina.

Soon they began partici-pating in international com-petitionsandthenpassedthetrialsfortheOlympics.

“After one year we hadgood results in Estonia andwe thought we could achievesomethinggoodoutsideof Es-toniaanddosomebigcompe-titions like European Cham-pionships and the Olympicgames,”LilytoldReuters.

Sheadded:“Itisboringtotrainalone.”

LilyandLeilaarefondof painting and drawing, andall three are reportedly pro-fessional dancers as well astrainedlifeguards.

But,alas,noneof thetrip-letsisseenasaseriouschal-lengetothebestAfricancon-testants. In the 2012 LondonOlympics, Ethiopian super-starTikiGelanasettheOlym-pic record of two hours, 23minutes, and seven seconds,when,incomparison,thefast-estof the threesisters,Leilaclockedinthentwohours,37minutes,and11seconds.

Estonia’s fascinating triplets in Rio Olympics’ marathon

Leila, Liina, and Lily Luik, marathon runners from Estonia, are believed to be the first triplets to have ever made it to the Olympic Games.

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9The BalTic Times august 11, 2016 – august 24, 2016

SPortS

Please RSVP to anna.tutina@maxcapman.com or tatiana.covalliova@maxcapman.com

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16-17 September 2016riga, Latvia

19th InternatIonal Investment BankIng ConferenCe Cee/CIs

“riga aS an internationaL FinanciaL Hub”

The Baltic Times sports writer Victor Shestopalov talks with Olympic champi-on, former Latvian basket-ball star Igors Miglinieks.

Alotof peopleknowwhoIgorsMiglenieksisandwhathe has accomplished dur-ing his illustrious basket-ball career. We are talkingabout winning Olympic goldin Seoul in 1988 or beatingZalgiris with CSKA Moscowteam numerous times in theSovietchampionship—hard-corestuff.ButtodayI’mgoingto tell you something aboutIgors you might have knownlittle about. Like all the bestEuropean players of the late1980s and early 1990s, Migli-niekstriedtogettotheNBA.He took part in a couple of training camps with severalNBA teams and became fa-mousinNorthAmerica,par-ticipating in the World Bas-ketballLeague.

Playing with or againstsuch future NBA stars asJohn Starks, Vincent Askew,and Mario Ellie, Igors madehisownmarkintheshortbutbright history of the WBL.Utilising his unique skillsof a tall point guard, 6’4’’(193 centimetres), Miglinieksdominated the competitionwith his extraordinary pass-ing. Back home, he alwayshad to remember which of his teammates could handlewhichof hismilliontypesof cleverpasses.

Today Igors Miglinieksuses all of his talents in abasketball school he openedfiveyearsago inIkskile, justoutside of Riga. In this idyl-lic place on the bank of theDaugavaRiverthereisevery-thing you might love a smalltownfor:acozytrainstation,non-existent traffic, smallhouses,abeautifulrecreationarea, and the beaches. Whatsetsthisplaceapartthoughis

asportcomplex,withthebas-ketballgyminthemiddle.It’snothing much, no stands oranything,butyoucanalmostfeelthatitisinasmall,ruralgymnasium like this that afuture basketball star mightbeborn.And,likebackintheplayingdays,with Igorsrun-ning the show from the floorgeneralspot,youcanbet thestarwillbebornheresoonerrather than later. The BalticTimessatdownwithIgorsforalaidbackinterview.

what are you doing with your coaching career right now?

First of all, based on my16 years’ experience, I’m ab-solutely sure that you can’tcoach without being madlyin love with this profession.I didn’t open my basketballschool right away after myplaying career was over.MainlybecauseIlivedinRigaback then and there were anabundanceof suchplacesoutthere.SoIdecidedtodoitjustoutside of Riga, in Ikskile,whereit’sreallyquiet,wherea lot of families have threeor more kids and where it’ssimply beautiful because of theDaugavaRiverlandscape.Initially,Ireckonedtorecruit

some 20 kids, but when 86showed up for the first prac-tice,Icouldhardlyholdbackmy tears. Whereas in theprofessional game you oftenhave to deal with the some-what dark, business side of basketball,workingwithkidsbrings me absolute joy andhappiness. Unfortunately, inLatviayoucan’tgetadecentliving just being a coach, so,besides running my basket-ballschool,Ihavetodosomeother business projects thatkeepmeafloat.

How has basketball changed over the years? what are the main dif-ferences in today’s game compared to the 1980s and 1990s?

Firstof all,basketballhasbecome more of a contactsport because of the rules’changes. Back in the day, itwas more like an art form,especially in the case of themost talented players. Weare talking about players us-ing a sleight of hand whendribblingtheball,cleverballfakes,artisticshotsorpasses.Nowadays it’s basically pureathleticism as well as dunks,dunks,andsomemoredunks.And the interesting thing isbecause the modern gamehas become more physical,playersneedtoworkmoreontheirs skills to beat some of thecontacttheyendurefromthedefenders.NowIteachmystudentssomemovesIdidn’thave in my playing career,like fast, low-to-the-grounddribbling. On the contrary, Iused to bounce the ball pret-ty high in my career and itsomehow worked really wellforme.Alsointhe1980sgameyou had that much moretimetogetyourshotoff andbecause of that there weremore shooters compared tothe modern game. Nowadaysyouhavetohavearealquicktrigger to get your shot off against really stiff, peskyindividual defenders. Nowa-days,wecoachesusuallybeatmodern players in shootinggameslikehorse.

As a great point guard from your era, what’s your take on the situation where now teams just use two combo-guards in the back-court and there aren’t too many good point guards anymore?

It’shappeningbecausethegame is much quicker thanit used to be back in the day.Plus they reduced the shot

clock from 30 to 24 secondsand you have less time foran offensive possession. Allthose things force teams toplayatafasterpaceandplay-makersjusthavelesstimetodo their things distributingthe ball and conducting of-fenseingeneral.ForexampleStanislav Yeryomin liked todribbletheballupthecourt,tell everybody where to runandwhattodoandonlythenmade his first pass or firstmove.Nowyoujustdon’thavetime forallof that stuff.An-othermainaspectisatransi-tiongamewhereyoudon’tal-wayshavetolookforapointguard to start a break. Oth-erwisethetimewillpassandyouwon’thavetheopportuni-tytorunatall.That’swhyallthose roles within basketballteamsaregettingcloser.AndthesedaysItoocoachmybigmentodribblethebasketball,likeaguard,andstartthefastbreak themselves off the de-fensiverebounds.

regarding the modern Lithuanian national team, what do you think about this group in general and how do you think it will fare in the Olympic Games in rio?

First of all I know theircoachJonasKazlauskasverywell,asIworkedwithhiminthe past. He is a very expe-rienced coach with his ownbasketball philosophy, whichsuitsthatteamverywell.Andthis guy is what the Lithu-anian national team needsright now, as, frankly speak-ing, the curve of its progres-sion is not that steep. Maybeit’s hard to believe, but thefact of the matter is Latvianbasketball is developing in afaster pace than Lithuanian.ThisispossiblebecauseLith-uanianbasketballisataverygood level in the first place.On the other hand, with alldue respect, today’s playersare not the best generationin the history of Lithuanianbasketball.Sotheywon’thaveit easy during the Olympicbasketballtournament.

Igors, you played not only for the best European teams, but in the States as well. what do you think needs to be done to beat the US national team, com-posed of NBA players?

Wewon’tlivetoseethis—that’s forsure.Their levelof basketball is way too high tobeatthemregularly.Iremem-ber my first training NBA

camp with the Los AngelesClippers, where Doc RiverswasamainpointguardandIcompetedforhisbackuprole.So they were really amazedby my defensive skills, asback home I was not only aplaymaker,butagoodstopperaswell.Iusedtocoverallthebest guards of my era, eventhe likes of the late DrazenPetrovic. And in the Stateseveryplayerwaslikethat—ahard nosed, scrappy warrior.So,thegapisstillwide,eventhoughsomeEuropeanteamsperform decently againstAmericansfromtimetotime.Butallinall,wewon’tseethishappeninginthenearfuture.

How would you promote basketball to the modern generation of young peo-ple, who maybe haven’t decided which sport to par-ticipate in?

First of all basketball iseasily accessible, in otherwords — it’s the game foreverybody. You don’t have tospendtoomuchmoneyonit,as baskets are everywhere,especially in the summer-time. Plus, you can have onein your home as well. Alsobasketball is unique becauseof itsmainaction—runningorjumpingtoshootaballintothe basket. Plain and simple—it’spoetryinmotion.And,unlike in soccer, you reachthispeakof scoringabasketevery 30 seconds or so. Thegameissofast-paced,butyouhave to think ahead, like incheckers,andbecleveratthesametime,evencunning.Andfinally,basketballisgreat,be-causeitistrulyateamgame.You can be the last man onthe bench, but still play thekey role in team success.Guyswhogetonthecourtforaminuteortwotosetagoodscreenorhitanopponentun-der theribsat the ideal timeare celebrated as much asstars among the knowledge-able fans. The whole worldisinsidethebasketballcourtwithallof theupsanddownsinherent to human nature.But the main thing is thatit’s the game for everybody.You don’t have to be reallybig or even tall to have suc-cess on the basketball court.Evenif youarea165-centime-tre guard, you can still fight,push, and shove bigger guysunder the boards within therules and not let them scoreon you. Basketball becamemoreuniversalwhereplayersof every position do all thesame technical things on thecourtandit’smoreappealingtoo.Andonemorething:evenif you are not that talentedskills-wise, you still can be astarinyourownuniqueway.Strongbodyandmindmulti-plied on your character willfindyouaplaceonanygoodbasketball team. You will getonthefloor, fightondefense,get rebounds, and will prob-ably have more fun playingbasketball than superstarsscoring 30 points a game.Maybe you will even becomethenextDennisRodman,whoknows.

Igors Miglinieks: ‘Latvian basketball is developing faster than Lithuanian’

Igors Miglinieks uses all of his talents in a basketball school he opened five years ago in Ikskile, just outside of Riga Pho

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vol. 20 #884AuGuSt 11, 2016 – AuGuSt 24, 2016

10

CultureAUG. 11-14

KUBANA 2016

Lucavsala island, atthe Daugava River inRiga

Kubana2016isreadytosatisfyyourcuriosityas to this year’s lineup.With great pleasure,Kubana announcesthree opening bands —Nofx,TheSubways,andEnterShikari.

Thetruefavouriteof Kubanafans,theBritishalternative band TheSubwaysiscomingbackto the festival, much tothe delight of peoplewho love singing along.And it seems likeeverygirlinthecrowdissurethat the song Rock-n-roll Queen is dedicatedtoher.Withoutadoubt,thisistrue!

Other Kubana 2016bands are alreadyknown.Thecharismaticand daring Garbage,legendary Guano Apes,crazy Mexicans Molo-tov, Marky Ramone’sBlitzkrieg, The 69 Eyes,NashvillePussy,EskimoCallboy.

The special guest— always unexpected,but beloved from child-hood — is Kubana’sspecial feature, whichdistinguishes the festi-val from all others. HisnameisVakhtangKika-bidze,People’sArtistof theGeorgianSSR,Hon-ouredArtistof Ukraine,laureate of the StatePrize of the USSR, lau-reate of State Prize of Georgia.Butalltheseti-tlesandrewardscannotbe compared with ado-rationfromthepeople.

AUG. 13-21

BIrGIttA FEStIVAL

St.Bridget’sConventruins,Kloostritee1,Tal-linn;

Birgitta Festival isoneof thehighlightsof theTallinnsummercul-tural calendar. The fes-tivalcombines thedarkcharm of the medievalSt. Bridget’s ConventRuins in Tallinn withthe latest in modernmusicaltheatreinallitsvarietyandrichness.

TheBirgittaFestivalwas first held in 2005.ForafewAugustnights,the imposing ruins of thePiritamonasteryareturned into a modernoperahousewherevari-ous genres of musicaltheatre are performed:classical opera, ballet,oratorios, contempo-rary dance, and musi-cal comedy — as guestperformancesaswellasoriginalproductions.

A roof protects au-diences from the rain.

Subtitles.Alacarteres-taurant.Everythinghasbeentakencareof.

AUG. 12-14

rIGA CItY FEStIVAL 2016

RigaCityFestivalar-riveslikealong-awaitedbirthday present. Forthree days, the city isfilled with festive at-mosphere, live music,andplentyof surprises.Themulti-colouredRigasummer season’s clos-ing festival is cause forelation,inturnofferingknowledge and a senseof thecity’shistory.

The celebration re-minds us of the timeswhenitwasfirstborn—the Daugava River wa-ters brought sailboatswith foreign goods, thearoma of herring andspratwasintheair,andthe narrow streets of cobblestone were filledwith the Brethren andKnights of the Order.Riga has always beena gateway to the world,andtheDaugavaaroadconnecting nations andpeople. The festival’sevents conjure up an-cient historical sightsboth on water and onland.

The popular festi-val venues in the OldTownof Riga—the11thNovember Embank-ment, Vermanes Park,andother locales—arefilled with entertainingand educational activi-ties for all generations— musical and theatri-cal surprises, specialoffers from Riga’s cafesand restaurants, goodssold at Riga City Festi-val markets by Latvianfarmersandcraftsmen.

AUG. 18, 7 P.M.

CHrIStOPHEr SUmmEr FEStIVAL:

LEttErS FrOm LAPENrANtA

Finnish landscapesandajazzlegend’spianoconcert; St. Catherine’sChurch (30 Vilnius St.,Vilnius)

Soloists: DaumantasKirilauskas(piano)

JaniNiinimaki(per-cussion,Finland)

Lapenranta City Or-chestra Saimaa Sinfo-nietta(Finland)

Conductor VytautasLukocius

The charismatic Vy-tautas Lukocius is notonetosteerclearof themostvariedamplua,yetthisisthefirsttimehe’llbeappearingasthecon-ductor of Saimaa Sin-fonietta as part of theChristopher SummerFestival!

The famous Finn-ish orchestra (founded

in 1909) will convey thelandscapesof theirlandthrough the works of composer K. Aho, in-fusedwithSaamimoodsbrought to life throughthe use of numerouspercussion instru-ments, ranging fromthe djembe to the tam-bourine. And togetherwithpianistDaumantasKirilauskas they’ll in-viteyoutoswiminaseaof jazz,pulsating to thepassagesof ChickCoreainthispianoconcert.

No touristy concertitineraries, an interna-tionalteamof excellentmusicians, all underthecapablebatonof Vy-tautas Lukocius — thepromiseof anextraordi-narysummerevening.

Programme — Ch.Corea,K.Avo

Concert duration 70min.

AUG. 19, 7 P.M.

LEONArDO DA VINCI’S

INStrUmENt

St.Catherine’sChurch(30VilniausSt.,Vilnius)

A Lithuanian pre-miere — the legacy of theRenaissancegenius

Concert organisedinco-operationwiththePolishInstitute;

Slavomir Zubrzycki(viola organista, Po-land)

The Renaissanceera’s genius Leonardoda Vinci still spurs onthe imaginations of more than just histori-ans, researchers, andwriters. The collectionof sketches and de-scriptions of his inven-tions compiled in theCodex Atlanticus hasalso inspired the Polishpianist and constructorSlawomir Zubrycki toawaken a 500-year-oldinstrumentthatdaVin-cineverhadthechancetohear...

After four years of intensive work, theper-former has presentedto the world the violaorganista — the onlyinstrumentintheworldthat looks like a tradi-tionalpiano,butsoundslike a combination of the organ, keyboards,and strings due to itsspecial internal struc-ture. Its unique soundreveals thegrandeurof Baroque works whilealso harmonising won-derfullyinthemusicof performersasvariedasBjork.

Discover the secretsof theCodexAtlanticustogether with SławomirZubrzycki!

Programme M.Marais,C.F.Abel,C.Ph.E.Bach,etc.

Concert duration 70 min.

Slavomir Zubrzycki

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Conductor Vytautas Lukocius

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The left bank of the Daugava will be transformed into a major venue.

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Birgitta Festival in Tallinn is worth seeing.

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West Estonia Festival.

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11The BalTic Times august 11, 2016 – august 24, 2016

CuLture

Printed at “Poligrafijas grupa MUKUSALA”, Mukusalas iela 15A Riga.

Tel: (371)67063355. The opinions in the opinion section are not

necessarily those of The Baltic Times or its staff. The Baltic Times is an

equal opportunity employer.

The Baltic Times is available on microfilm from: EAST VIEW PUBLICA-

TIONS Inc. 3050 Harbor Lane North Minneapolis, MN 55447,

USA. Some ads we receive are camera ready, and we cannot be held

responsible for any mistakes in the English language.Published in riga by BALtIC NewS Ltd.

BALtIC NewS Ltd. All rights reserved. the Baltic times is published fortnightly.

Chairman: Gene Zolotarev

Editor in chief: Linas Jegelevicius

Web editor: emma Ikstruma

Production design: Jeanna Baikova

Copy editor: emma Ikstruma

MAIN OFFICE In rigarupniecibas 1-5, Lv-1010, LAtvIA tel: (371) 67 229 978fax: (371) 67 783 602

Advertising: adv@baltictimes.comSubscription: subscription@baltictimes.comEditorial: linas@baltictimes.com

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TALLINNestonia@baltictimes.com

AUG. 19-21CONtEmPOrArY Art

AND VIDEO Art FEStI-VAL UDENSGABALI

Leftbankof theDaugava,Riga

During the days the leftbankof theDaugavaistrans-formed into a major venuefor video installations andcontemporary art — a party,if youplease,forthepicture,video, sound and, of course,the imagination. This festi-val’s opening ceremony willfeatureacompetitionfor“vi-sual jockeys” with eight art-ists signed up to take part.DayTwowill featureaselec-tion of experimental filmsand video works, but thegrand finale will be for theyounger set — an invitationtobeapartof thevideoani-mation workshop and havethe opportunity to view Lon-don Animation Festival pro-grammesespeciallyfortots.

AUG. 19-22

rIGA CrAFt BEEr FEStIVAL

Aldaris Beer Museum,Riga

Brewers and their imagi-native recipes pan-Europewill convene in one location,giving you the opportunitytotaste-testanumberof spe-cialty or “designer” beer, i.e.craft—asmuchasyouwish.

At this two-day event, asplendid opportunity to sam-ple over 180 “extravagant”brands of beer from all of Europe.Latvia’sfinestmicro-brews — Labietis, Maldu-guns, Viedi, Barda, and oth-ers—willalsobefeatured,aswell as some foreign brands—Denmark’s“Mikkeller,”thetrendy US east coast-brewed“Evil Twin,” and the award-winningNorwegian“Cervisi-am.”Ortrythebrandsmadeby Catalonia’s brand new“EdgeBrewingCo.”

This festival will be achance for you to taste-testthese “exotic” libations, butalso hear the saga of craftbeer—thehistoryanditsuse

today.Livemusicfromanum-ber of groups will entertainthecrowd.

Exchange your ticket attheentranceforaspecialfes-tival beer mug which givesyoutherighttotaste-testthebeerofferedwithnoaddition-alfee.

AUG. 20-21

wESt EStONIA FEStIVAL

On Aug. 20 Tallinn opensitsgatestoWestEstonia.Thisfestival gives an opportunitytoTallinnresidentsandvisi-torstolearnabouttherestof Estonian culture and leisureactivities, and gives guestsan opportunity to introducethemselves and invite theresidents of Tallinn to pay avisit.

AUG. 22, 6 P.M.

Eduard Vilde Museum,Rohelineaas3,Tallinn

An exclusive concert of violinist and singer MaarjaNuutwillbeheldinthecosyhallof theVildeMuseum.

Theconcertwillbeplayedintheformerloungeof Edu-ard Vilde, which will add anexciting cultural dimensionto the brave and mysticalsound.TicketscanbeboughtinadvancefromtheVildeMu-seum!

AUG. 20

Estonian Open Air Mu-seum

Vabaohumuuseumitee12,Tallinn

Estonia celebrates therestoration of independenceaswellasitsfreedomtosingontheprincipleof beingableto say what is on Estonianmindsoutloud.

On Song Day Estonianswillsingof theholidayswithEstonianarchaicrunicsongsandnewer folksongs.Tocel-ebrate the Year of MaritimeCultureoneisinvitedtotakeawalkonthecoastandsingseasongs.

RIGA craft beer festival always attracts large crowds.

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Riga City Festival fills Riga for three days with a festive atmosphere, live music, and plenty of surprises.

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Violinist and singer Maarja Nuut.

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12 The BalTic Times august 11, 2016 – august 24, 2016

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BNS/tBt Staff

A dispute betweenthe Estonian govern-mentandtheNGOAus-ad Valimised (HonestElections) in the Euro-pean Court of HumanRights (ECHR) over afineslappedontheNGObyEstonia forviolatingthe advertising law hasreached a stage wherethe parties have pre-sented their argumentsand thenextstep is the

court’sverdict.“The proceeding in

the European Court of Human Rights is con-ducted in writing and,asarule,consistsof twostages:afterthegovern-ment has respondedto the complaint theplaintiff is entitled initsturntocomeupwithits remarks and an ad-ditional claim for dam-ages with regard to thegovernment’s response.Then the government

will be offered an op-portunity to respond tothe plaintiff ’s remarksandclaimfordamages,”spokespersonfortheEs-tonianForeignMinistryMariaBelovastoldBNSonMonday,Aug.8.

“In the case AusadValimised MTU vs Es-tonia both the plaintiff and the state have beenable to present theirstance to the ECHR inbothstages,”shesaid.

Sheaddedthatthere

was no deadline for theECHRruling.

From March 18 toApril7,2013theNGOor-ganised an advertisingcampaign in Tallinn,in the course of whichposters saying “Theymight erase your vote,”“Every e-vote may be athreattoEstonia’sinde-pendence,” and “Theymight give your vote towhomever theychoose”were displayed in 68 lo-cations.

Citing the Advertis-ingAct,whichsaysthatanadvertisement is notallowed to depreciatelaw-abiding behaviour,which e-voting is ac-cording to the Estonianlaw, the consumer pro-tection authority foundonJune3, 2013 that theads constitute a viola-tion of the AdvertisingAct and fined the NGO1,600euros.

Siret Kotka, boardmember of the NGO

that is linked to Esto-nia’s opposition CentreParty, said in Januarythat by fining the NGOthe consumer protec-tion authority violatedthe right to freedom of speechenshrinedintheEuropean ConventiononHumanRights.

“The state arguedagainst the appeal bothwhenitcomestoitsad-missibility and its con-tent,” Belovas said onMonday,Aug.8.

European human rights court mulling appeal of Estonian e-voting critics

BNS/tBt Staff

A Centre for BalticCultureandStudieswasopenedinDevSanskritiUniversity inHaridwar,northernIndia,onMon-day.

The inaugurationceremony was attended

bythegovernorof Utta-rakhand, Krishna KantPaul, and the ambassa-dors of Lithuania, Lat-via,andEstonia.

“TheLithuanianlan-guageiscurrentlystud-ied at 47 academic cen-tres across the world.Today we are adding

one more member tothis distinguished fam-ily,which is the firstof its kind in South andSouth-East Asia,” Lith-uanian AmbassadorLaimonas Talat-Kelpsasaid at the opening cer-emony.

Presenting the li-

brary with a smallLithuanian-Sanskritdictionary containing108 identical words inbothlanguages, theam-bassador noted a closesimilaritybetweenLith-uanianandSanskrit.

Thecentrewillofferinstruction in the three

Balticlanguages—Lith-uanian,Latvian,andEs-tonian—andwillfocusontheresearchof Baltictraditionsandculture.

The centre will beheaded by professorSigma Ankrava of theUniversity of Latvia onaninterimbasis.

A private universityestablished in2002,DevSanskriti University of-ferscoursesintheology,yoga, alternative thera-pies, Indian culture,tourism, and rural ad-ministration, accordingtoWikipedia.

Centre for Baltic studies, culture opened in India

BNS /tBt Staff

Political instabilityin Turkey has substan-tially reduced demandfor holidays in thatcountry as a result of whichtheEstoniantouroperator GoAdventurehas decided to cancelflightstoTurkey.

“We’re offering al-

ternative solutionsto customers affectedby this decision,” thefirm’s marketing man-ager Jevgenia Kirilovasaid.“We’recertainthatwe’llbeable to find thebest alternative for ourclientsinourtravelpro-gramme. Already nowwecanoffersuntripsto

EgyptfromOct.2016tillApril2017.”

According to Kirilo-vathetouroperatoralsoissettooffernewdesti-nations in Spain soon.“Furthermore, new dis-tantpocket-friendlydes-tinations ideally suitedfor a beach vacationareinthepipeline,”she

stated.Customers who do

not wish an alternativetrip and want a refundshouldsubmitarespec-tive application, Kirilo-vasaid.Themoneywillbe refunded within 14days.

Last week GoAdven-ture canceled Thurs-

day’s departures fromTallinn and Riga toBulgaria, citing poorservice quality of theBulgarian partner.Kirilova affirmed atthat time that GoAd-venturewouldcontinueoperations. There hasbeen speculation in themediathatthecompany

could be experiencingfinancial troubles, butthe tour operator hasdenied the rumors andassertedthatitsactivitywillcontinueinfull.

Estonian tour operator GoAdventure cuts Turkey programme for summer 2016

BNS/LetA/tBt Staff

Therouteof theRailBaltica European-gaugerailroad will promotenew industrial areas inLatvia, RB Latvija, thecompany responsiblefor implementation of theproject,reported.

AccordingtoRBLat-vija expert Neils Bal-galis,aftertheconstruc-tion of the Rail Baltica

route, there will be tworailway infrastructuresin Latvia and in placeswhere both railroadscross, there is an op-portunity for furtherdevelopment of indus-trial territories. Suchnewzonescanbedevel-oped in the Salaspils,Incukalns, and Olaineregions with cargo ter-minalsandwarehouses.

M u l t i f u n c t i o n a ltransport hubs will bedeveloped at the Rigarailway terminal andRiga International Air-port.

Balgailis also saidthat there will be indi-vidual talks with land-owners potentially af-fected by the construc-tionof therailway.

The number of af-

fectedprivatepropertieshas been cut from 2,000toabout800astheroutehasbeenchanged.

The Rail Baltica IIproject seeks to re-es-tablish a direct connec-tion between the BalticStatesandtheEuropeanrailway network. Theprojectisexpectedtofa-cilitateregionalintegra-tionbymeansof arail-

way link from Helsinkithat would connectTallinn, Riga, Kaunas,Warsaw,andBerlinandmightpotentiallybeex-tendedtoVenice.

According to esti-mates drawn up in 2011by British consultancyAecom,thenewrailwayline in Latvia will costabout1.27billioneuros,and the project’s total

costs in all three BalticStates are expected toreach3.68billioneuros.Each particular coun-try’scontributiontotheproject will depend onthe size of EU co-fund-ing. The total EU co-funding forRailBalticaIIcanreachupto85percentof itstotalcosts.

Rail Baltica route to promote new industrial areas in Latvia

13The BalTic Times august 11, 2016 – august 24, 2016

BALtIC NewS

BNS/tBt Staff

Lithuanian prosecu-tors have opened an in-vestigationintoanti-gaycommentspublishedon-linefollowingthedeadlyattack in an Orlandonightclub.

“Prosecutors believethat there is sufficientevidence in the currentphase of the proceed-ings to conclude thatcriminal deeds couldhave been committedand that the deeds and

circumstances need tobe investigated,” Gin-tare Vitkauskaite-Sat-kauskiene, spokeswom-an for the ProsecutorGeneral’sOffice,said.

Conducted by Vil-nius prosecutors, theinvestigation is beingcarried out under thechapters of the Crimi-nal Code, which stipu-late liability for publicinstigation of violenceagainst a person or agroupof peoplebecauseof gender, sexual orien-

tation, race, nationality,language, origin, socialstatus, religion, beliefs,orattitudes.

Vilnius prosecu-tors revoked the policefinding against inves-tigating the comments,launching their ownprobe.

An armed attackerkilled about 50 peopleand left about the samenumberinjuredinagayclub in Orlando, Flori-da,inearlyJune.

BNS/tBt Staff

Finland’s Finnair,Russia’s airBaltic, andGermany’s Lufthansawere the main users of theLithuanianairspaceinthefirsthalf of 2016.

According to dataprovidedbyLithuania’sstate-owned air naviga-tion service providerOro Navigacija (Air

Navigation), Finnairconducted 11,500 flightsin the Lithuanian air-space in the January-June period this year(10 pct of the market),while airBaltic madenearly 9,000 flights andLufthansa 8,800 flights(8 pct and 8 pct of themarket,respectively).

In the first half of 2016, Oro Navigacija

provided services to110,600 airplanes, up by1.5percentyear-on-year.Some84.1percentwereontransitroutes,whichaccounts for 76.1 percentof allflights.

The company re-ceived 13.321 millioneuros in revenue in thefirst six months of thisyear, incurring a netlossof 234,000euros.

BNS/LetA/tBt Staff

Latvia’s Gamma-Afish cannery last yeargenerated turnoverworth 20.58 million eu-ros, down 34 per centyear-on-year, accordingto Firmas.lv businessdatabase.

The company’s lossreached1.06millioneu-ros.

Thecompany’sman-agement said in its re-port that the situationinmarketistenseasthe

demand for canned fishproducts in the tradi-tional markets is lowerthan the production ca-pacity. As the companyis cutting its produc-tion, prime costs aregrowing.

Last year the com-panymade24.77millioncans of different fishproducts,whichisby67per cent more than in2014,including8millioncansof sprats.

The company plans

tocontinueworkonnewmarkets,whichhasbeenthe company’s prioritysince Russia, Belarus,and Kazakhstan intro-duced a food productembargotwoyearsago.

Gamma-A, foundedin1995,hasasharecapi-talof 853,600euros.Thecompany’ssoleownerisGammaHoldingsA.O.I.,which is further ownedby Cyprus-registeredFunstar ManagementLimited.

BNS /tBt Staff

In the wake of theISIS group terroristattacks that shockedEurope, some travel in-surance companies inLithuania are consid-ering an offer of insur-ance against damagesincurred due to acts of terror. They are yet tochoosebetweendevelop-mentof newservicesorexpansion of existingoffers.

Eugenijus Maziulis,marketing and commu-nications chief at the

Lithuanian branch of Seesam Insurance, saysthat damage caused byterrorismiscurrentlyarisk that is not coveredbyinsurance.

“Thismeansthatthedamage caused to a cli-ent’spropertyorhealthinsucheventwillnotbecovered,”Maziulissaid.

He emphasised thecompany is consider-ingaddingaterrorriskinsurance to its travelpackage before the endof thisyear.

“Weseetheneedforsuch insurance, there-

fore, we are thinkingabout this year; how-ever, it still involvesinternational coordina-tion, risk assessment,and dealing with docu-ments,”Maziulisadded.

Darius Bivainis, theheadof thePersonalIn-surance Division at theLithuanian branch of ErgoInsurance,saidin-terestinsuchinsurancewas insignificant, add-ing that the companywas not ruling out thepossibility of offeringtheinsurance.

BNS/tBt Staff

The Japan Mari-time Self-Defense ForceTraining Squadron ar-rived in theLithuanianport of Klaipeda onMonday, Aug. 8, on thefirst visit of JapanesewarshipstoLithuania.

The three warshipscame in celebration of the 25th anniversary

of diplomatic relationsbetween Lithuania andJapan, Lithuania’s De-fenseMinistrysaid.

According to thepress release, Japan’srepresentatives expect-ed to visit Klaipeda,Kaunas, Vilnius, andMedininkai.Thevesselswere open for publicvisits on Tuesday and

Wednesday.Lithuania is one of

the 13 countries visitedby the Japanese Train-ing Squadron in itsaround-the-globe train-ingdeployment.

LithuaniaandJapanwere engaged in closedefense co-operationduring the mission inAfghanistan.

BNS/tBt Staff

Lithuania’s LabourExchange is in no rushtofacilitateemploymentconditions for peoplefrom third countries,forcing them to chooseother countries whereemployment takes con-siderablylesstime,Kau-noDienadailysaid.

“Someonehastosaywhatemployeeswelack

and what we shouldsearch for abroad. Theprofessions that areindeed in lacking arevery different from thelist provided by the La-bour Exchange ... Em-ployment procedurestake a very long time.In our country, paper-work takes about 2 to2.5 months, whereas inneighbouringcountries,such as Latvia or Po-

land, everything takesless time,” the dailycited Jurate Bruziene,projectmanageratNau-tilus LT company thatsearches forskilledem-ployees from Ukraine,assaying.

Inherwords,nearlyallvacanciesfortrainedprofessionals in Lithu-aniawouldcurrentlybefilledif theemploymentprocesstooklesstime.

Lithuanian prosecutors open probe into anti-gay comments

Finland’s Finnair remains main user of Lithuanian airspace in H1

Latvian Gamma-A fish cannery posts 1 million euros in 2015 loss

Lithuanian insurers consider insuring clients against terrorism risks

Labour Exchange vague at employing workers from third countries

Squadron of Japanese ships arrive on first visit to Lithuania

BNS/LetA/tBt Staff

The Latvian govern-mentonAug.9approveddraft amendments totheCriminalLawcrimi-nalising unauthorisedserviceinforeigncoun-tries’ armed forces andvarious military or se-curityservices.

The ban, however,will not apply to indi-viduals serving in thearmedforcesof EUand

NATOmemberstates.Under the draft

amendments to theCriminalLawdrawnupbytheDefenseMinistry,personswhoviolatetheban on serving with aforeigncountry’sarmedforces, internal troops,military organisation,intelligence or securityservice, police, or ju-dicial institutions willfaceajailtermof uptofour years, community

service,orafine.In addition to the

amendments to theCriminal Law, the gov-ernment is also expect-edtoadoptdraftamend-ments to the NationalSecurity Law banningLatvian citizens fromjoining a foreign armyorsecurityservicewith-out the government’sconsent.

The ban will not ap-ply to the Latvian citi-

zens serving with thearmed forces of coun-tries that are membersof theEuropeanUnion,European Free TradeAssociation (EFTA),or the North AtlanticTreaty Organisation,nor Australia, Brazil,and New Zealand, norif aLatviancitizenwithdual citizenship joinsthemilitaryof theothercountry of which he orsheisacitizen.

For persons whowillhave joinedforeignarmed forces beforeJan.1, 2017, therestric-tions will be applicableasof Jan.1,2018.

The legislativeamendments have beendrawn up in order torestrict the possibilityof Latvian citizens andnoncitizensgainingmil-itary and combat expe-rience in foreign coun-tries, as it can under-

mine Latvia’s defensecapabilities,internalse-curity, and internation-al reputation, as wellas pose counterintelli-gence risks. Also, gain-ingmilitaryandcombatexperience in foreigncountries can involveideological elementsaimed against Latvia’ssovereigntyandterrito-rialintegrity.

Latvia backs criminalisation of unauthorised service in foreign armed forces

BNS/tBt Staff

Around 70 peoplestaged a picket in frontof the Cabinet of Min-isters building in Rigaon Aug. 9 to show theirsupport for the rightsandinterestsof Latvia’scourtemployees.

Some of the dem-onstrators held plac-

ards with messageslike “Stop Promises!It’sTimeforWork”and“Fair Wages for CourtEmployees.”

LatvianJusticeMin-ister Dzintars Rasnacs(National Alliance)cameoutof thegovern-menthousetotalktothedemonstrators. EriksPule, the leader of the

court employees’ tradeunion, handed the min-ister a file with a peti-tionsignedby787courtemployees, represent-ing 41 courts in Latvia.Thepetitioncallsonthegovernment toback theJustice Ministry’s pro-posal to raise the courtemployees’wages.

Thepickettookplace

as the Finance Minis-try was presenting newpolicy initiatives to thegovernment.

“If we achieve noth-ing with this public ac-tion,wehavevotedatameetingtocallastrike,”Pule said earlier. Thestrike could take placethis autumn. Courtemployees that are not

members of the tradeunion have also voicedtheirsupportof astrike.

Court employees— judicial assistants,interpreters, court sec-retaries, and clerks —have been expressingtheir discontent overthesector’spaysystem.At present they receiveonly 50 per cent the

maximumgrossmonth-lywagewhichhasbeensetat1,286euros for ju-dicial assistants, 1,190euroforcourtinterpret-ers, and 996 euros forsecretaries.

Pule said that itwould take 10 millioneuros to resolve thecourtemployees’payis-sues.

About 70 people stage picket in Riga in support of court employees’ interests

14 The BalTic Times august 11, 2016 – august 24, 2016CommeNtAry

Andrei KolesnikovTwo years ago, a long

process of growing authori-tarianism and isolationismunderPresidentVladimirPu-tinculminatedinRussia’san-nexationof Crimea.Butevenasmuchof theinternationalcommunity condemned themove, Russians seemed towelcome it. Indeed, the pen-insula’s “return” to Russiancontrolhadaprofoundeffecton public sentiment — onethat seems to have strength-ened Putin’s grip on power,even as Russia faces deepen-ing political and economicchallenges.

InMarch2016,83percentof Russians supported theannexation of Crimea, whileonly 13 per cent opposedit. Even progressives — in-cluding some who protestedagainst the regime in Mos-cow’s Bolotnaya Square be-tween 2011 and 2013 — havefound in Crimea a reason tosupport Putin, albeit withsome reservations. Indeed,Putin now enjoys an 80 percent approval rating, re-flecting how closely he andCrimea are linked in Rus-sians’minds.

The reason why the an-nexation has attracted suchwide support is simple. Formost Russians, Crimea re-mains part of the “empire,”bothculturallyandgeograph-ically.Tobesure,Russiadoesnotpossessthepowerandre-

sourcestorecreateanempire,even within the confines of theabstract“Russianworld.”But by focusing on Crimea,Putin’s regime was able tocreate a sense of restoredhistorical justice and reviveexpectations of a return to“greatpower”status.

Of course,noteveryoneinRussia supports the annexa-tion. And, in fact, opponentsof the move are intractable,describing Crimea as occu-pied territory. Nonetheless,they comprise just a smallminorityandlackanyrealin-fluence (the regime has seento that). They are literallysurrounded by people whounquestioningly support theauthorities — and especiallyPutin.

That response may besurprising, given the tan-gible consequences of theannexation — in particular,theeconomicimpactof West-ern sanctions, the effects of which have been compound-ed by plummeting oil pricessince June 2014. The emo-tionalelementcertainlyplaysa role. But this is not simplya matter of manipulation bypropaganda.

In fact, the main reasonthe majority of Russianssupport the annexation of Crimeaseemstobepreciselythat: the majority of Rus-sians support it. For the av-erage post-Soviet Russian,who regained Crimea from

their couch, remote controlinhand,fallingintolinewiththe majority is far more ap-pealingthanrockingtheboat— so much so that Russiansareoutrightrefusingtothinkcritically about what is hap-pening. It is typical crowdpsychology.

This unflinching sup-port has carried over to the“just,” “defensive,” and “pre-ventive” military operationsthat Crimea catalysed, fromDonbas to Syria, and eventhe trade war with Turkey.Despite the obvious risks as-sociated with such moves,Russians have accepted thenarrativethattheyareneces-sarytopreservestability,notto mention Russia’s newlyreacquiredstatusasa“greatpower.”

As if that were not coun-terintuitiveenough,Russiansalso seem to be supportingthe Putin regime’s economicmismanagement preciselybecause their economic situ-ation is so dire. The averageRussianhasbeenquicktore-verttohabitsassociatedwiththecultureof scarcityof therecent past. Their attentionis focused on obtaining ba-sic necessities like food andclothing;fewareinterestedinanalysingthecausesof theirdeclininglivingstandards.

Andwhocanblamethem?After all, those Russianswho do consider the politi-cal context are immediately

confrontedwithgrimreality:Theregimehasguttedallop-position,not leastbystokingfear of being labeled an “ex-tremist.”Morethanonevocalcritic of the regime has metanuntimelyend.

That is why even demon-strations opposing some gov-ernment policy or outcomeare not so much “protestsagainst” as “appeals to” theregime.Withoutfundamentalchange in the political sys-tem, it is unlikely that suchdemonstrations, even if theybecome more frequent, willbecome overtly oppositional.And, without oppositionalprotest, systemic changeseemsunlikely.

Intheabsenceof openpo-liticalcompetition,Putinhasbuilt a system of checks andbalances within the elite. Agroupof loyalistliberalsholdkey financial and economicposts, balancing the hawksin the military and specialservices,includingstructureslike the Security Council,whichfrequentlyservesasanincubatorforelegantconspir-acy theories about Westernplots.Of course,allmembersof theelitemustcontinuous-ly demonstrate their loyaltytoPutin.

This system keeps Rus-sia’s elites from pushing forchange (unlike in the past,whenthoseelitesdidattempttoinitiatereforms),asitpre-cludesthepossibilityof anti-

Putin intrigue. And the re-gimedoesseemrelativelysta-ble, at least for now. Indeed,it has only gained strengthsince 2012, and now, withpost-Crimea popular supporthaving bought it some time,theregime is trying toadaptto the protracted economic,political, and social malaiseRussiaisfacing.

Butthattimeis,of course,limited. That is why, in ad-vance of the September par-liamentary elections, theregime is increasingly di-recting citizens’ attentiontoward internal “threats” —that is, political opponentsandsupposed“traitors.”OneprominentexampleisformerYukos Oil Company Chair-man Mikhail Khodorkovsky,whose expressions of doubtaboutPutin’sleadershipland-edhiminjailand,later,exile.

In 1970, the Soviet dissi-dent Andrei Amalrik asked,inapropheticessay,“WilltheSoviet Union Survive Until1984?”Wemustnowaskhowlong Putin’s regime will sur-vive.Itseemslikelythatitwilllast until the next presiden-tialelection,in2018.Whetherit will endure through thesubsequent election, in 2024,isaquestionthatKremlinolo-gists — a quickly recoveringspecies—willsoonbedebat-ing.

This article first appeared at http://ednet.project-syndicate.org.

The secret of Putin’s survival

vladislav Inozemtsev

Western policymakers inrecentyearshavestruggledtocategorisetheRussianpoliti-calsystem,oftenresortingtovague phrases such as “illib-eraldemocracy”or“authori-tarianism.”

If anything, the Russiansystem should be character-isedasproto-fascist—tamerthan European fascist statesduring the 1920s and 1930s,but still featuring key ele-ments of those regimes.These include the structureof Russia’spoliticaleconomy,theidealisationof thestateasa source of moral authority,andRussia’sparticularbrandof internationalrelations.

In “The Anatomy of Fas-cism,” Columbia Universityhistorian Robert O. Paxtonwritesthat:

“Fascism may be definedas a form of political behav-iourmarkedbyobsessivepre-occupation with communitydecline, humiliation, or vic-timhood and by compensato-rycultsof unity,energy,andpurity,inwhichamass-basedpartyof committednational-ist militants, working in un-easy but effective collabora-tion with traditional elites,abandons democratic liber-tiesandpursueswithredemp-tiveviolenceandwithouteth-icalorlegalconstraintsgoalsof internalcleansingandex-ternalexpansion.”

In a 1995 essay for TheNew York Review of Books,the novelist Umberto Eco,who was born during Italian

fascism in 1932, defines fas-cismexpansivelyasa“cultof tradition”basedin“selectivepopulism.” And as early as1939, Peter Drucker claimedin “The End of EconomicMan: The Origins of Totali-tarianism,” that “fascism isthe stage reached after com-munism has proven an illu-

sion.”Judging by these defini-

tions, it would be difficulttoday to find any trend inRussianpoliticalsocietythatcouldnotbelabeledfascist.

For starters, consider thestate’s encroachment intothe economy. Russian Presi-dentVladimirPutinhasbeenhoarding national wealth in

state-owned banks and nowrefers to Russian oil and gascompanies as “national trea-sures.” His goal is to estab-lishnew“statecorporations,”evenasthestateownershipintheeconomyalreadywellex-ceeds60percent.Meanwhile,independent trade unionshave been all but crushed,and oligarchs now declarethemselves willing to rendertheirproperty to thestateasneeded.

Moreover, Putin now hasnear-absolute control overtheuseof violence,thankstomultiple “enforcement agen-cies” that report to him di-rectly,includingtheArmy,theMinistry of the Interior, theFederal Security Service, a30,000-memberFederalGuardService that was created in2002, and a 400,000-memberNationalGuardthatwascre-atedearlierthisyear.Andthisdoesn’tincludestatecorpora-tions’ own “private armies”orloyalwarlordslikeRamzanKadyrov in Chechnya. Kady-rov commands an estimated30,000 armed enforcers, and

his followers have been ac-cused of retaliating againstdissidents.

Completing the formula,Putin appeals to Russians’sense of historical loss andformerglory,openlypraisingirredentism and militarisa-tion.VictoryDaycelebrationscommemorating the SovietUnion’s defeat of Nazi Ger-many now surpass the bom-bastof theSovietperiod;andstate propaganda constantlyfuels anti-Western sentimentwithclaimsthatpartsof “his-toricalRussia”wereillegallyseized — hence the need to“reclaim”CrimeabyforceinMarch2014.

Infact,Russia’spropagan-da machine is its most pro-found proto-fascist achieve-ment. Putin can surroundordinary Russians with theuninterrupted message thattheirs is a modern economyon par with leading globalpowers.Andeachyear,popu-listrhetoricabouta“nationalrenaissance” and a “show-down with the enemies”growsstronger.

But Russia’s nod to fas-cism poses little long-termdanger, for three reasons.First,fascistelementsinRus-sia did not emerge organi-cally as they did in Europein the early 20th century.Rather, they are being im-posed on Russian society bythestate,whoseleaderenjoysfar-reaching power underthe 1993 constitution. With-out any deep national rootsamongthepeople, the fasciststructuresbeingbuiltcanbe

easilydismantled.Second,Russiaisamulti-

ethniccountrythatforcentu-ries developed as an empire,not as a nation-state. There-fore,fascistictendencieshereare more imperialistic thannationalistic. And, notwith-standing Russia’s aggressionin its “near abroad,” it lackstheeconomicwherewithal tosustainanempire.

Third, and most impor-tant, Putin’s Russia is a cultof personality. Short of aNorth Korean-style dynasticsuccession, these regimesnever outlive the leader,whether in Italy, Germany,Spain,orPortugal.OrasPu-tin’sdeputychief of staff,Vy-acheslavVolodin,unwittinglyputit:“AnyattackonPutinisanattackonRussia…(T)hereisnoRussiatodayif thereisnoPutin.”

Russia’scurrentgeopoliti-calneighbourhoodis far lesstolerant of totalitarian ide-ologies than it was 90 yearsago.WesternpowersneednotundermineordestroyPutin’sRussia; they simply need tooutlive it. Even with the di-minished power of so manyWesterncountriestoday,thatshouldbeachievable.

Vladislav Inozemtsev is professor of Economics at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics and Director of the centre for post-Indus-trial Studies.

This commentary first appeared on http://ednet.project-syndicate.org.

Russia’s flirtation with fascism

Vladislav Inozemtsev is director of the Centre for Post-Industrial Studies.

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“Infact,Russia’spropaganda

machineisitsmostprofound

proto-fascistachievement.Putincansurround

ordinaryRussianswiththe

uninterruptedmessagethat

theirsisamoderneconomy

onparwithleadingglobalpowers.Andeachyear,

populistrhetoricabouta“national

renaissance”anda“showdown

withtheenemies”growsstronger.But

Russia’snodtofascismposeslittlelong-

term.”

15The BalTic Times august 11, 2016 – august 24, 2016

CommeNtAry

elvira Zasenhof

I’m beginning to wonderwhether this whole DIAS-PORAlabellingof mycompa-triotsabroadisnotjustsomeclever make-work market-ing shtik at the expense of awhole category of Latvianswho were displaced as refu-geesaftertheendof theSec-ondWorldWar.

That war ended for myfather when he shuffled off his mortal coil in the earlyhoursof Sept.21,2015.Tech-nically,ithadcommencedforhim soon after June 17, 1940when, as a member of BalviCityBand,hehadtoplaythe“Internationale”onhisflugelhorn for the raising of theRed flag in the town square.Barely out of school, he wasnot yet in anybody’s sights,not even for military con-scription. Life continued onaday-to-daybasisforhimbutrapidchangesinsocietywereafootand,of course,theJune14, 1941 mass deportationswereanindicatorof veryse-riouschangestocome.

Itwasnotreallyuntil theGerman attack and progres-siveoccupationof Latviathatcommenced on July 22, 1941thatmyfather’spersonal lifetrajectorytookaseriousturn,commencing with a classicrailjourney:

“Wewere‘seated’inalineof rail cargo wagons — bynow a well known ‘standard’form of transportation of

Latvianswhichhadbeenverypopular during the summerof 1941—theYearof Terror.Ourtraintookupaslowpaceandweheadedoff toournewdestiny — and a new future.Wewereapartof theplanfora New Europe and our dutywas to fight for the realisa-tion of that dream. We weretravelling in cargo wagons,barelyfitforhumansandyetofficiallyintheserviceof theReichsArbeitsDienst.”

That first train journeywasthebeginningof anepicvoyage that ultimately tookhim to the Russian front asa medical orderly at Opoch-ka, then a seemingly slowretreat and traipse throughno-man’s-Kurland with the15th Division and ending upon May 8, 1945 as an EXILE,unable to return to his nowSoviet-occupied (no longera protectorate) homelandandabouttoberegisteredinpost-war Eslingen as an of-ficial DISPLACED PERSON.His life trajectory then tookhim to Pakistan, Papua NewGuinea, and eventually, onlyin1974(!)totheultimatesafehavenof Australia.Heneverconsideredhimself tobeadi-asporaLatvian.

I use the example of myfather, and of myself as aNew Guinea born Child-of-Exile that has successfullyrelocated to my Fatherland,to highlight an issue, a his-torical fact, that is presentlybeing conveniently swept

under the proverbial carpet.The distinction and dividingline between post-World WarTwo Latvian communities/enclaves-in-exileandpresent-day clusters and commercialhubsof mostlyeconomicim-migrants is deliberately be-ingsmoothedover...fudged!

AccordingtoestimatesbytheForeignMinistryfor2012,about 370,000 Latvian-bornnationalsarepermanentlyre-sidingoutsideLatvia,mostof themhavingemigratedinthepastdecade.

Thereasonisevident:Lat-viaisatpresentincapableof adequately and successfullyhandling a mass re-locationof exile post-World War TwoLatvians yet it is quite hap-py to facilitate the incomingtransmissionof literallymil-lions of dollars annually inremittances. The same goesfor present-day economic ex-iles — their departure actu-allyalleviatesany localneedforgovernmentfiscalsupportand facilitates further mil-lionsof eurosinremittancesthat also seemingly “justify”major inactivity in any localhealth and welfare commit-menttothe“folksbackhome...in-country.”

ThetermDiasporahasbe-comeamake-worki.e.,make-money opportunity. The Uni-versityof LatviaevenhasitsownDiasporaStudiesCentre;the Ministry for Foreign Af-fairs has now appointed asecond special Ambassador-

at-Largeforco-operationwiththeDiaspora.

In view of the massiveemigrationOUTflowoverthepast two decades, co-opera-tion with the Latvian dias-pora has seemingly becomeone of the priorities of theForeign Ministry in its workaimed at promoting politicaland civic participation, thepreserving Latvian identityandof bondswithLatvia,andstrengthening co-operationwithcompatriotsabroad.

AND, frankly — suchmake-work enterprises havenothing but due credit totheirwhole idea.Whatcouldbe better than a functioningworldwide Latvian economicandculturalnetwork?

BUT maybe we can calltheseforeignLatviancentresHubs,orClustersoranythingelsebutDIASPORA.

Forquiteafewyearsnow,ashistoricalcomparisonwithother classical diaspora eth-nicities — especially thosethat were without a countryof their own (e.g. the Stateof Israel — declared May 14,1948,recognisedMay11,1949)there has been a regular in-housestandingjoke:

“Oh,Latviansarejustlikeeverybody else, maybe evenmoreso!”

One wonders whether“true believer” Alfreds Ru-biks, the former LatvianCommunist Party chief whoattempted to lead a counter-coup as Latvia struggled to

regain its independence, hasany opinion. On May 9, 2015hewasquotedbyLSM.lv:

“This day marks the endof thewarandtheliberationof LatviabySovietsoldiers.”He denied the Soviet Unionhadbeenanoccupyingpoweritself. “I object to such at-temptstorewritehistoryandrehabilitatefascism,”hesaid.

One wonders what Latvi-an-born exile and successfulrepatriant Professor ValtersNollendorfs, Chairman of the Board at the OccupationMuseum Association of Lat-via, thinks about this issue,or whether Australian-bornChild-of-Exile Dr GunarsNagels, Editor-in-Chief of LAIKRAKSTS-LATVIETIS— An Australian Newspaperfor Latvians Worldwide, hasa view that he would like tosharewithTBT.

One really wonders whatthoughts emanate from thepoet and dramaturg MaraZalite, born in exile in Kras-noyarsk,intheformerSovietUnion. She was an instru-mental guiding personalityduring the People’s Manifes-tationatForestParkwithhercoremessage:“’Weareanor-phaned people” (“Mes esambarenutauta”).

As for me: “Since I havemydukedomgotandpardon’dthe deceiver, you, Diaspora,maydwellinthisbareislandbyyourspell;butreleasemefrommybandswiththehelpof yourgoodhands.”

Diaspora: Or Lettish diatribe

Aaron Bateman

The catchphrases of Re-

publican Party presidentialnomineeDonaldTrumphavecaptured the world’s atten-tion since the beginning of the contest. His views on amyriadof foreignpolicyandsocial issues have left manyAmerican voters and inter-estedpartiesaroundtheglobein a state of bewilderment.Thus, it is not surprisingthat polls have consistentlyshownthatamajorityof Re-publicans are not satisfiedwith Trump. Nevertheless,his ascension into the high-estofficeinAmericaisadis-tinctpossibility,andhispoli-cies could have catastrophicconsequences for Europeansecurity. The run up to theelection of 2016 has revealedthat very few Americans(including the presidentialcandidates) understand thenature of the Russian threatto European and Americansecurity interests. If he iselected,DonaldTrump’scom-ments alone about reviewingWashington’s commitmentto NATO could substantiallyundermine Baltic security.America’s European allies,therefore, must prepare forthe possibility that the nextpresident may not guaranteetheir sovereignty and safetyinthefaceof anever-increas-inglyassertiveRussia.

the American misun-derstanding of russia

Washington policymak-ershaveconsistentlyfailedtorecognise that the Kremlin’spoliciesaredrivenbyasiege

mentality,i.e.,VladimirPutinandhisclanoperateasif theUnitedStatesanditsWesternalliesareconstantlyworkingto undermine Russia and itssecurity interests. Addition-ally, Moscow has believedsincethecollapseof theUSSRthat Washington does notapproach itasanequalpart-ner.TheKremlinaccusestheUnitedStatesof wantingRus-siatohaveremainedinastateof weakness characterisedby economic, technological,andmilitaryinferioritycom-paredtoWesternstates.Thus,the Smutnoe Vremia narra-tive(“Timeof Troubles”—atermthatharkensbacktooneof thedarkestperiodsinRus-sian history) has been usedto describe Russia’s chaoticand insecure state of affairsinthe1990s.Inthisnarrative,Putin delivered Russia fromits weakened state and hasworked to transform it intoa great power that can with-stand what the Kremlin per-ceivesasWesternaggression.

Putin and his tight-knitcircle of advisors (many of whomaresiloviki—currentand former members of thesecurity services) regularlyinsinuate that Western intel-ligenceagencieshavemanip-ulatedelectionsinplaceslikeUkraine,Georgia,andArme-nia.Evennon-silovikitechno-crats like Dmitry Medvedevin Putin’s administrationhavealsopubliclychargedtheUnited States with involve-mentintheMaidanaffairandthe colour revolutions in theformerSovietterritories.Pu-tinevenallegedthatCIAandMI6orchestratedthemassiveproteststhatbeganin2011in

Moscow.Insecurityaboutfor-eign-backed subversive oper-ationsresultedintheRussian2014 Defense Doctrine listingcolour revolutions as one of Moscow’stopnationalsecuri-tyconcerns.Finally,thispastyear, Putin announced thecreation of the 400,000-manstrong National Guard creat-ed to maintain the public or-der, i.e., topreventasuccess-fulRussiancolourrevolution.

Many Americans (includ-ing senior policy makers)have, therefore, failed to rec-ognise that the substantialdeterioration in US-Russianrelations stems from Rus-sia’s domestic political im-peratives (Putin’s desire tostayinpower),whatMoscowperceives as Western aggres-sion, and the Kremlin’s aimtoachievegreat-powerstatus.The former Supreme AlliedCommander in Europe, re-tired Admiral James Stavri-dis,hasrepeatedlystatedthatthe US and Russia have notenteredintoanewColdWar.Washington should, however,be concerned that the dete-riorating security situationinEuropehasthepotentialtounravel America’s relation-ship with its once tight-knitcircleof Europeanallies.Ad-ditionally, this deteriorationcould destroy the Americangeopolitical gains that re-sultedfromtheendingof theCold War. To guarantee Eu-ropean security, Washington(alongwithitsallies)mustin-vestmoreheavilyintoNATO,bolsteringthealliance’smili-tary capacity. Unfortunately,a Trump presidency may de-stroytheverybedrockof Eu-ropeansecurity—NATO.

Conclusions

Most recently, US Direc-tor of National IntelligenceJames Clapper stated thatRussia attempting to influ-enceanelection“philosophi-cally isn’t terribly differentthanwhatwentoninthehey-dayof theColdWar.”Severalprivate American securityfirms have stated that Rus-sian cyber actors were likelybehindtherecenthackingof the US Democratic NationalConvention. It is too soonto say (and it may never beknownwithcertainty)wheth-erornotMoscowismakingaconcerted effort to influencethe upcoming presidentialelection.Itis,however,highlylikely that Putin would pre-fer to have a Trump victoryover Hillary Clinton givenTrump’s statements on US-Russian relations and Euro-pean security more broadly.Morespecifically,Trump’sal-legedpolicyof reviewingthefuture of America’s commit-ment to NATO and his sup-portforBrexitisinlinewithPutin’s vision for Europe’sfuture.

This past July when Don-ald Trump was asked wheth-erornothewoulddefendtheBaltic States against a Rus-sian attack he replied, “if they fulfill their obligationsto us, the answer is yes.” Hefailed to articulate what arethe obligations of the BalticStatestotheUSandwhatcon-stitutes fulfilling them. Thefoundation of NATO is Ar-ticleFiveof thetreaty,whichstates that an attack on onememberof theallianceisanattack on all. Therefore, if

Trump becomes presidentof the United States and hisanswer to the question of whether or not America willrespond to a Russian attackon the Baltics is effectively“itdepends,”hemightaswellinvite Moscow to expand itsEuropeanterritory.Thus,theelection of Trump could re-sultinthedestructionof theAmerican guarantee of Eu-ropean security, which mayin turn cause a significanttransformation of Europe’sgeopolitical map. At thispoint, theBalticStatesalongwiththerestof theworldcanonly hope that the Americanelectorate will decide that aTrump presidency may verywell result in the abandon-mentof vulnerableEuropeanallies and the unraveling of the post-Cold War order thatthe US struggled to achieveforoversixtyyears.

Aaron Bateman is a uS Air force officer and a graduate of St. Joseph’s university in philadelphia. He studied at Kazan State university in the russian federation and his research on russian security has been published most recent-ly in The Journal of Slavic Military Studies.

The views expressed in

this article are those of the author and do not necessar-ily reflect the official policy or position of the Depart-ment of the Air force, the Department of Defense, or the uS Government.

The potential consequences of a Trump presidency for Baltic security

16 The BalTic Times august 11, 2016 – august 24, 2016

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Linas Jegelevicius

Most of us melt from thehappy laugh of a child, butmany underprivileged chil-dreninLithuaniacanbarelysqueeze a smile amid thefamilies’dailystruggletoekeout a living. Statistically, ev-eryfifthfamilyinthecountrygetsbyinpoverty—making259 euros, or less than that,per family member a month.Mindful of joy-deprived chil-dren, Palanga, the Baltic re-sort,hasinvited600childrenfromsociallyvulnerablefam-iliesfromalloverthecountrytotheseasidethissummer.

For free, as the transpor-tation, accommodation, andnourishment have been pro-videdbybenevolentpartnersof the social project. Behinditstandstheexuberantmayorof the resort, Sarunas Vait-kus,afatherof threewhohasvowedtoturnPalangaintoafamily-friendlydestination.

A lot has been done inthat regard already, so whenLithuanian President DaliaGrybauskaite voiced an ini-tiative“ForasafeLithuania!”tothecountry’s60mayorsatthe Presidential Palace ear-liertheyear,Vaitkussawthatthe chance to make manychildren’s lives merrier hadcome.

“DespitethefactthatLith-uaniaisamarinestate,thereare hundreds of childrenwhohaveneverseentheBal-ticSea.Notallfamilies,alas,canaffordbringingtheirkidsto it, so the idea — get themhere—poppedupinmymindinthemeetingwiththepresi-dent,whoemphasisedtheur-gency of issues facing social

risk families,” the PalangamayortoldTheBalticTimes.

Fortymunicipalitiesswift-ly responded to the seasidemunicipality’s call to submitlists of children between 3and 16 and their chaperonsqualifying for the free Baltic

Seatrip. Needless to say, the chil-

dren’s ever first encounterwith the sea was full of tizzandjoy.

Along the way to the sea,thethrongsof childrenhadtomake their way through theKingdom of Bubbles. Someof the littlest were unable toresist the desire to join thebubble blowers settled alongMeile Alley. Before turningup at the sea, the children

wereherdedtotheJurateandKastytisSquareandaskedtomakeawish,whichcertainlywillcometrueasmostof thewishes pan out to the BalticSea.

“Theseaisreallywonder-ful—sovastanditseemsasif it is very far away fromwhere we live. It feels amaz-ing to experience its beautyand prowess first-hand,” themothers said, feeling excitedwith their offspring splash-ing in the waters attentivelyguarded by Palanga Beachlifeguards.

Swarmedbyadozengreet-ers, Vaitkus, the mayor, wasoverthemoon:“Suchathing,Ipromise,willbecomeannu-al. Especially since the localcommunity has vigorouslyextendeditssupportforit.”

And here is another rea-sonformanyfamiliestostartplanning a journey to Palan-ga,cherishing thenameasafamily-friendly resort. Lastweekend, it added a Lithua-nianFairytaleParktoasetof children-oriented activitiesinthetown.

Some of the fairytaleheroes in the amusementpark have incarnated intomesmerising state-of-the artstructures—allof whichcanbetapped,saddled,andother-wisefiguredoutbytheyoungandcuriousvisitors.

TheparkissituatedinthepineforestatBiruteParkandtakes up two hectares. Theopen-air children’s amuse-mentplacewillbeinvitingallyearroundandPalangahintsit is about to craft some newprojectsforchildren.

Palanga gets 600 needy children to the coast for acquaintance with the Baltic Sea

Some 600 children from socially vulnerable families from all over Lithuania swarmed Palanga in July.

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Palanga added a Lithuanian Fairytale Park to a set of children-oriented activities in the town.

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Palanga mayor Sarunas Vaitkus is happy: “The endeavor has been fulfilled!”

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“Statistically,everyfifthfamilyinLithuania

getsbyinpoverty—making

259euros,orlessthanthat,

perfamilymemberamonth.

Mindfulof joy-deprivedchildren,

Palanga,theBalticresort,

hasinvited600childrenfromsociallyvulnerable

familiesfromalloverthe

countrytodiscovertheBaltic

seathissummer.Forfree,asthetransportation,

accommodation,andnourishmenthavebeen

providedbybenevolentpartnersof thesocialproject.”