CORPORATE
How are low oil prices impacting Lithuania’s economy?
With falling oil prices, oil has started becoming a burden on nations that produce it but oil importers like Lithuania have been prospering from the price drop. […]
Opinion
Opinion
Opinion: Why Baltics should hope Marco Rubio wins US presidential election
The election for US President is well underway and the races are so close that only a few percentage points could have an enormous effect on not only the Baltic States, but all of Europe. […]
CORPORATE
Opinion
Opinion: Labour’s well-oiled political machine won’t be enough
With the Court of Appeals’ decision to overturn prison sentences for the Labour Party‘s fraudulent bookkeeping, talk has returned to the possibility of the party making a real comeback. The court’s decision was favourable for the Labour Party, but I doubt they can seriously aim for a victory in the Seimas elections. […]
CORPORATE
Trump, Clinton, Cruz, Sanders: Who would be the best US president for the Baltics?
As the presidential race in the United States picks up pace, political analyst Simonas Klimanskis looks at which of the front-runners for the Democratic and Republican parties’ nominations would pursue foreign policies that are in the best interests of the Baltic States and Eastern Europe. […]
CORPORATE
Veolia claim against Lithuania offers case in point for EU trade liberalisation sceptics
Although the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) is less debated in Lithuania than in many larger member states of the European Union, recent charges by a large investor, Veolia, against Lithuania illustrate the fears that many, especially European green movements, have had about the agreement all along. […]
CORPORATE
CORPORATE
Liberals need to think differently to make gains from second place
The Liberal Movement are securely the second-most popular party in Lithuania after the Social Democrats, according to opinion polls, but despite their good ratings there are reasons for unease for the party in the run up to this year’s elections. […]
CORPORATE
Opinion: Kaliningrad – Kremlin‘s joker in geopolitical poker game with West
The Kremlin‘s propaganda rarely shocks anymore and hardly registers as news with most people but some of it deserves attention because when a specific propaganda message is repeated over and over, it is done in an attempt to embed it in our minds as being the uncontestable truth. In the case of Kaliningrad, it has to be feared that the Kremlin‘s efforts are an attempt to incite war between the West and Russia. […]
CORPORATE
Partnership with Poland should be Lithuania’s key foreign policy priority, says former ambassador to US
Many in Lithuania have been criticizing Poland‘s new government, but former Lithuanian ambassador to the US Žygimantas Pavilionis believes that the return of a strategic partnership between Poland and Lithuania should be our greatest foreign policy priority. According to Pavilionis, those now criticising the Polish government are the same people that accepted Barack Obama‘s attempts to reset the US relationship with Russia and improve the EU’s relationship with Russia. […]
CORPORATE
Unpredictable Poland is the new Russia for Lithuanian exporters, say economists
After riding themselves of dependence on unpredictable markets in Russia Lithuanian exporters are facing another potential crisis in Poland, according to Swedbank economist Nerijus Mačiulis. […]
CORPORATE
Supporters and critics of Poland clash in European Parliament
Ping pong of historical references pepper European Parliament debate on Poland reforms and European Commission investigation […]
CORPORATE
Controversy over Lithuanian children seized in Norway prompts hard look inwards
Protests have sprung up across a number of countries against the actions of Barnevernet, the Norwegian children’s welfare service that has removed numerous children from migrant families in Norway. Last Thursday, one such protest sprang up in front of the Norwegian embassy in Vilnius but Linas Linkevičius, the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, said “only a legal path, not populist protests and rallies, can be used to negotiate with Norway for the children that were taken from those Lithuanians”. […]
Opinion
Opinion: The only way to defeat Putin
A cloth voodoo doll with tiny button eyes depicting Vladimir Putin; a knife to cut it; a water bowl to drown it; pins and needles to prick it. And it all feels so good. It’s a perfect illustration of what the desks of certain politicians, reporters and analysts might look like who were writing about Russia in 2014 and 2015. […]
CORPORATE
Conservatives’ game of thrones weighing on party’s prospects
With general elections approaching, the conservative Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats, one of Lithuania’s major political parties, is facing the prospect of another term in opposition. […]
Opinion
Man on a Mission – An Insider’s Account of the Cold War
In a new memoir, former Swedish diplomat Bo J. Theutenberg alleges that Soviet and Eastern European intelligence infiltration of Swedish post-war society was far more extensive than previously understood and that Sweden’s Prime Minister Olof Palme may have been a key target. He also warns about the continuing and serious ramifications for the current Swedish-Russian political relationship. […]
Opinion
Opinion
Is Lithuania willing to embrace the next industrial revolution?
This year’s World Economic Forum in Davos will focus on the next wave of innovation, but are Lithuanian politicians ready to embrace new opportunities and give up unnecessary regulations, asks economist Rūta Vainienė. […]
European Union
Refugee resettlement stalling: European Parliament debates binding obligations including Lithuania
Policymakers increasingly admit that Europe’s refugee relocation mechanism is stalling – countries like Lithuania feel it first-hand. Lithuania’s participation has not started on a high note – the only family (four persons) relocated under the mechanism is already suing the country for granting legal protection rather than refugee status. […]
Foreign affairs
Linkevičius: 2016 will test European unity
Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius and LRT.lt Editor-in-Chief Vladimiras Laučius sat down to talk about some of the greatest issues challenging the unity of the European Union. The distribution of power among the EU’s institutions, the Schengen zone, and the future of the refugees coming to Europe will all be tested in 2016. […]