Baltic Timeline

Ten years ago

Russia announce Sept. 8 that it will withdraw its remaining troops in Lithuania by Aug. 31, 1993. The announcement followed a meeting between Lithuanian Parliament Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis and Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Landsbergis said the natyional referendum on the issue in the spring prompted the agreement.

Prices continue to soar in Estonia following the switchover to the kroon. Health care costs have doubled so far during the year and the price off food has increased 140 percent.

The well-known German athletic footwear maker Addidas opens an official representation in Latvia. The company's products sell for a third less than in Western Europe.

The voting registration of Latvian citizens living in the United States will begin soon. According to a bill on the first post-independence parliamentary elections passed recently in the first reading by the Latvian Supreme Council, people may participate in the election if they are of Latvian descent.

Five years ago

Latvia Prime Minister Guntars Krasts said he feared cooperation of the Baltic states might collapse if Estonia alone is included in the European Union expansion talks. Krasts said in an interview with the German business newspaper Handelsblatt that Estonia's admission to the European trading bloc without Latvia and Lithuania could jeopardize cooperation among the three republics. "If Estonia alone is admitted to the EU, Baltic cooperation will face the question, to be or not to be," Krasts said.

In an effort to halt the downward spiral toward degeneracy, lawmakers in the small Estonian town of Sindi have decided to take action with the introduction of legislation that will outlaw the use of expletives. Since the beginning of July, anyone using offensive language in Sindi can be fined up to $100. Under the legislation, only those persons using language found offensive by another party can be fined. Being that the majority of people in this small burg outside the seaside resort of Parnu cannot understand most curses in languages other than Estonian and Russian, the law underlines transgressions in these languages, so foreigners get a break.

A report on Estonia by the Finnish European Parliament member Jorn Donner submitted to the Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee Sept. 2 does not contain a recommendation of two official languages for Estonia. Donner finds, however, that the problem deserves to be discussed. The document will join reports on other European Union candidate countries on the basis of which the Euro-Parliament will in the fall form an opinion on the enlargement of the union.