Off the wire

COMMUNISM CONDEMNED

The Estonian Parliament condemned on June 18 the crimes of the Soviet Union's communist regime on its territory, saying they should be condemned as much as those committed by Nazi Germany. In a statement, adopted with cross-party support by 74 MPs and one opposed, the Parliament said the genocide, deportations, illegal confiscation of property and Russification committed by the Soviet regime in Estonia during and after World War II were criminal.

"The statement is a step toward a more adequate picture of history," MP Andres Herkel of the opposition Pro Patria party and a key figure behind the statement told the Parliament. "The double standards we increasingly see in international politics are also being applied to the closer past." According to the statement, the Soviet Union's punitive bodies, such as the feared security police, the NKVD and KGB, were criminal. But membership in these and other repressive bodies of the Soviet regime does not entail collective responsibility. Communism must be condemned as much as the Nazi regime has already been found guilty internationally, the statement said, adding that "similar crimes of the Soviet Union's communist regime have so far remained uncondemned." (Agence France Presse)

FRAUD ABROAD

A former Kremlin employee under suspicion in the case of a million-dollar fraud scam was arrested in Moscow on June 15, Moscow police told the Interfax news agency on June 18. Larissa Serebrianikova, a 50-year-old former civil servant within the Russian presidential administration, was the object of an international arrest warrant for her suspected involvement in financial fraud worth $1 million committed in Lithuania, the police said. She was arrested in central Moscow following an investigation conducted by the Lithuanian authorities. (AFP)

UNION WITH RUSSIA

Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka on June 18 dismissed suggestions that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin are at odds over plans to create a union between their two states. "We have witnessed repeated efforts to drive a wedge between Belarus and Russia," said Lukashenka. "But it is ordinary people, not the presidents, who need to build the union of Russia and Belarus."

In unusually harsh criticism, Putin lashed out at Lukashenka last week for trying to restore the Soviet Union through his efforts to latch on his smaller republic to Russia. Moscow and Minsk signed an agreement on economic and political union in April 1996 and a broader treaty in 1999, but despite repeated efforts they have been unable to forge any meaningful political or economic alliance. Some Kremlin advisors fear that the hardline Belarusian leader is angling for way to win the Russian presidency. They fear Lukashenka sees Belarus being rescued from its precarious economic position by Russia, which is richer. (AFP)

POOR FARMER DEMO

More than 10,000 farmers from the European Union and EU candidate countries held a protest march June 11 in the streets of Strasbourg to demand that EU farm subsidies be maintained and extended to EU newcomers from Eastern Europe. Police said more than 10,000 demonstrators took part in the march to the European Parliament, but organizers put the figure at over 20,000, representing 23 countries.

A horse-drawn cart covered in European flags headed the colorful and good-humored procession, which had earlier gathered around a giant screen to watch the Denmark-France football match. Demonstrators carried a banner that read "No agriculture without a future, no future without agriculture" as they marched toward the European Parliament, where a delegation was to be received by early afternoon. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, has proposed direct payments to farmers in new member countries initially at just 25 percent of what current members get but rising to 100 percent over 10 years. (AFP)

SILLY NAMES

Estonian officials are working on changes to the Personal Names Act, to remind the public about the basic rules of Estonian grammar in a desperate attempt to eliminate the trend of inventing names that are too original. The parents, however, seem intent on amusing the public with names their children will probably seriously consider changing when they get their first IDs.

Weird names given to kids in May included Horre, Shrek, Jauram, Ra and Tristan for boys, and Aleksandretta, Aliis-Cadily, Alteja, Bethany and Loreley for girls. The most popular names in May were Kevin, Martin, Markus, Kristjan and Aleksander for boys, and Helena, Kristina, Kristiina, Maria and Anastasia for girls. According to the population department of the Ministry of the Interior, 1,158 children were born in May, 602 boys and 556 girls. (Baltic News Service)

BORDERS IN ORDER

Chiefs of border guard services of the three Baltic states will meet in Lithuania's sea port of Klaipeda this week to discuss the organization of the protection of their sea borders. The two-day meeting of the Baltic Council of Ministers' committee of senior border officials will involve Chief Commissioner of the Lithuanian Border Guard Algimantas Songaila, and his Latvian and Estonian counterparts Konstantins Sarigins and Harri Hein. The three officials will exchange information about security and the border services' performance. Other items on the agenda will be the coordination of common activities in identifying forged documents and detaining wanted individuals and stolen vehicles. (BNS)