During President Vladimir Putin's aide Sergei Yastrzhembsky's visit to the Baltic state, Russian Ambassador Viktor Kaluzhny said that Russia would announce whether it intends to sign a border agreement with Latvia by April 21. Yastrzhembsky claimed that the treaty was being discussed in Moscow and could soon become a reality.
The shortage of available hotel rooms for U.S. President George Bush's upcoming visit may be solved by renting a ship from Finland's Silja Line company, the government revealed. President Bush will be traveling with an entourage numbering more than 700. The lack of available rooms has forced the Economy Ministry to resort to other options, some as exotic as accommodating the guests on a boat anchored in the Daugava River. The government has agreed to put forward the 700,000 lats (1 million euros) needed to reserve the ship, though Silja Line reportedly wants 900,000 lats for four-five days' use of its liner.
"The Hidden and Forbidden History of Latvia," the 14th volume of Latvian history, was released recently by the commission of historians and is the first of its kind available in English. The book is a collection of essays by leading historians such as Aivars Stranga and Karlis Kangeris covering Latvian history under the Soviet and Nazi occupations, and features an introductory essay by the American historian Alfred Erich Senn, and a foreward by President Vaira Vike-Freiberga.
