Lithuanians feel that Social Democrat Party leader and current Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas is the best candidate to head the new government, according to a RAIT poll published on Nov. 9. The survey, which was conducted on Oct. 14-17, showed that 37.7 percent of respondents believe Brazauskas could head the Cabinet after the October elections. Some 28.9 percent of those polled consider Labor Party leader Viktor Uspaskich to be the best candidate for Prime Minister, while the chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, Valentinas Mazuronis, and impeached ex-President Rolandas Paksas had the least support with 1.3 percent of the votes.
Officials warned the country's 3.5 million citizens on Nov. 5 to be on the lookout for a missing radioactive $100 bank note. Although it is unclear how the note became radioactive, one theory is that it could have come from an area with a high-level of post-Chernobyl contamination. The bank note was discovered in September when it set off alarms at an airport and was quarantined in a safe room. But the bank note was reported missing - probably stolen - on Nov. 2, just before it was due to be shipped to a nuclear power plant for destruction. Chief of the state's radioactive substances security agency, Albinas Mastauskas, told Reuters that although the note was not potent enough to cause burns, it could pose long-term health risks for children or pregnant women.
Lithuania presided for the first time over a session of national delegation heads at the environmental Helsinki Commission in the Finnish capital on Nov. 5. Arturas Daubaras, chief of the State Environmental Inspectorate, headed the two-day meeting. "The Helsinki Commission, which has been working for 30 years, is among key environmental institutions in the Baltic Sea region," said Daubaras. Lithuania took over the HELCOM presidency on July 1 for two years. HELCOM is an intergovernmental institution that coordinates the implementation of the Baltic Sea Environmental Convention, also known as the Helsinki document.
The outgoing Parliament ruled on Nov. 5 to cancel public road fees as of July. 1, 2005. A new version of the law on the financing of road maintenance and development program was passed with 79 votes in favor, one vote against and six abstentions. According to current legislation, road fees are imposed on all domestic companies, including companies that neither own vehicles nor make use of public roads. Parliament had rejected a proposal to cancel the fee on Jan. 1. According to new legislation, funding for road maintenance will partly come from revenues on excise duties levied on petrol, diesel fuel and biofuel.
More than half of Lithuanians think that Russia's policy toward the country is unfriendly, a Spinter poll published on Nov. 10 showed. Most of those considering the Russian policy hostile were in the 25-34 age group, or above 55 years of age living in Kaunas and rural areas. Those who saw Russia's policy toward Lithuania as friendly were middle-aged residents of Vilnius, Klaipeda and smaller cities. Fifty-seven percent of respondents disapproved of the current government's relations with Russia.
