arrow_downwardJuris Paiders / Autori

In order to get its hands on €184 million of EU funds, the government of Krišjānis Kariņš is ready to let the population freeze during the energy crisis. Although Latvia is the world's largest exporter of peat for the fourth year running, in the middle of July the Latvian government suddenly backed the abandonment of using peat for energy.

There is a common understanding among Latvia's political leadership that we should stop buying natural gas from Russia. The aim of this policy is to not be a part of the financing of the Russian military machine. Every euro paid for natural gas supplied by Russia allows Russia to continue financing its aggression against Ukraine. This is why the Public Utilities Commission also put forward a proposal to the Saeima that would have the force of law to ban the supply of natural gas from Russia from January 1, 2023.

In the Second World War, no woman conscripted into the British army was awarded a medal for bravery on the battlefield. Was this discrimination?

Last weekend, Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic within Uzbekistan, was swept by a wave of violent and bloody protests. Upon learning that the planned amendments to the Uzbek constitution would no longer contain the article that Karakalpakstan is a sovereign republic with the theoretical possibility of seceding from Uzbekistan by referendum, mass riots broke out in Nukus, the capital of Karakalpakstan, and elsewhere.

For the economy to grow and prosperity to increase, businesses need to continuously invest in new equipment, buildings, etc. If investments are made today, there is every reason to expect a return tomorrow. If investments are not made, this means less income over the next five to ten years.

According to data compiled by the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB), the total turnover of retail businesses in real prices increased by 23.6% in May compared to May 2021. As the average consumer price level in Latvia increased by 16.9% over the year, the physical volume of purchases in May was 6.7 percentage points higher than last year.

Early last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan agreed to support the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO. On June 28, Finland, Sweden and Turkey signed a memorandum in which Finland and Sweden undertook to deal promptly and thoroughly with Turkish requests for the extradition or deportation of those suspected of terrorism by Turkey.

According to data compiled by the International Trade Centre (ITC), in 2021 Latvian companies' income from wheat exports (more precisely - wheat and wheat-rye blend) amounted to €499 million, which is significantly higher than the export income generated annually by, for example, Latvian railways.

According to data compiled by the International Trade Center, Latvia was the fourth largest exporter of rye in the world in 2021 (131,000 tons). In 2021, Poland exported 1.06 million tons of rye, Germany exported 376,000 tons of rye and Canada exported 142,000 tons of rye. Latvia's total rye exports in 2021 were ahead of Russia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Lithuania and other countries.

Against the backdrop of the overall economic problems, the rather positive fact that almost all Latvian freight traffic grew in the first three months of this year was not particularly noteworthy.

Uz “Neatkarīgās Rīta Avīzes” galvenā redaktora jautājumiem atbild Ķīnas Tautas Republikas vēstnieks Latvijas Republikā Lians Dzjaņcjuaņs.

The Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the Republic of Latvia, Liang Jianquan, answers questions from the editor-in-chief of Neatkarīgā Rīta Avīze.

Last week, several Russian commercial banks resumed the exchange of freely convertible currencies into Russian rubles.

It is now more than three months since Russia invaded Ukraine. About the same amount of time has passed since much tougher economic sanctions were imposed against Russia than in 2014. It is now possible to assess dispassionately the impact of sanctions on the Russian economy over three months. The legitimate aim of the sanctions was to deny Russia the technology and financial resources to sustain its war effort.

On May 18, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg officially received Finland and Sweden's application for accession. This is a historic event, because for almost two centuries (since 1815) Sweden was a neutral country. It was only in 1995, when Sweden joined the EU, that it lost its permanent neutrality. EU Member States have to follow a common EU policy, so EU Member States cannot be internationally recognized as permanently neutral countries. Until 2008, Sweden continued to pursue policies characteristic of neutral countries outside the common EU position.

I have not lived in Riga for several years, so I rarely use its public transport. It happened that on May 14 it was more convenient and easier for me to travel by train.

In early May, it will be two years since Neatkarīgā was transformed from a printed newspaper into a high-quality digital daily. In that time, we have more than doubled the audience of Neatkarīgā. In March 2022, according to Google Analytics, 620,000 unique users visited Neatkarīgā alone.

On May 2, the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a strong warning to Latvian nationals not to travel to Transnistria and to leave the region immediately. "In view of the Russian military attack on Ukraine and hostilities by Russian armed forces near the Moldovan border, which are currently causing unpredictable developments in the security situation in the near future, we strongly urge people not to travel to the Transnistrian region and Latvian nationals in the region to leave the Transnistrian region.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to spend some time in Estonia and see how ETV+, Estonia's Russian-language TV channel, works.

This week, the US and British military experts expressed grave concerns that Russia might use chemical weapons against the fighters in Mariupol in the war.

Unfortunately, the great unanimity and solidarity that prevailed in the international community in the first month since Russia invaded Ukraine is beginning to wane. If, on April 7, in the UN General Assembly vote on Russia's removal from the UN Human Rights Council, those countries that did not register to vote had taken part and voted "abstain", the decision would not have been taken and Russia would have remained on the UN Human Rights Council.

Šī gada 6. aprīlī Krievijas Liberāldemokrātiskās partijas līderis, Krievijas Valsts domes deputāts, Krievijas Valsts domes priekšsēdētāja vietnieks (2000–2011) Vladimirs Žirinovskis beidza šīs pasaules gaitas.