AP WorldStream
Monday, May 28, 2001 12:24:00 PM
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press

    MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Monday that Moscow continues to staunchly oppose eastward expansion of NATO -- even though it's ready to cooperate with the alliance on other issues.
    "NATO constantly says that it doesn't view Russia as a threat," Ivanov said at a news conference. "But if Russia poses no threat, why it should expand?"
    Russia has underlined its concern about the alliance's projected expansion by refusing a send a delegation to a session of NATO's Parliamentary Assembly that began Sunday in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.
    Despite strong protests by Russia, NATO accepted Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic as new members in March 1999. Moscow views the expansion as a security threat, and is particularly dismayed by aspirations for NATO membership voiced by the three former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
    NATO has said the door to Lithuania and other Baltic states is open but that they weren't ready militarily.
    "NATO must deeply change, or else we have questions to which our partners don't give coherent answers," Ivanov said Monday.
    He sounded conciliatory on other aspects of Russian-NATO relations, saying that Russia was ready to continue cooperation with the alliance on peacekeeping in the Balkans and other European security issues.
    Russia froze links with NATO in 1999 to protest the alliance's air campaign against Yugoslavia, but then restored contacts last year. President Vladimir Putin even said that Russia may one day seek NATO membership.

Reuters World Report
Tuesday, May 29, 2001 8:27:00 AM
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.
By Burton Frierson

    VILNIUS, May 29 (Reuters) -- Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis called on NATO on Tuesday to "end the uncertainty" by stating clearly its policy towards enlarging into the ex-Soviet Baltic states.
    "To put it bluntly, the Baltic states need to be given a clear indication as to their future membership," Valionis told a meeting at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
    "We in Lithuania believe that the 2002 Prague Summit is the right place and time for the invitation to our country to be issued."
    Lithuania, keen to join the alliance to guarantee the independence it won from the Soviet Union in 1991 after five decades of rule by Moscow, is hosting the spring session of the assembly as an associate member.
    The assembly is meeting for first time since its inception in 1955 on the territory of the former Soviet Union, which has led to Russia's delegation pulling out of the current session.
    Russia, which dominated the Soviet Union and is also an associate member of the assembly, objects to Lithuania and other ex-Soviet states bidding to join NATO.
    Lithuanian diplomats have worried that Russia's objections might lead NATO to refuse them entry, draw out their accession bids or offer them a watered-down version of membership.
    They say they would like to see the next round of NATO expansion handled like the last -- meaning that accession would take place very soon after an invitation was issued.
    The last expansion, NATO's first since the end of the Cold War, brought in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland in 1999.
    Valionis said Lithuanian membership would not hurt relations with Russia or retard the development of democracy there.
    Some in the West fear it would strengthen the hand of hardliners in Moscow.
    The Lithuanian foreign minister also blasted the notion that the Baltics constitute a "special case" for NATO enlargement as their accession would mean the alliance including former Soviet territory -- a sensitive topic for Moscow.
    "Let us put things straight. The only special thing is the still lingering, I'd say, anachronistic fear that inviting the Baltic states to join the alliance would mean trespassing over the mythical red line (of the former Soviet Union)," he said.
    Officials say Lithuania, which like its Baltic neighbours Latvia and Estonia was disappointed at being left out of the 1999 expansion, appears to be among the top candidates for NATO membership.
    "There (is) an overwhelming perception that Lithuania is among the countries with the greatest chance. It's a leading candidate," said NATO Parliamentary Assembly President Rafael Estrella.

AP WorldStream
Tuesday, May 29, 2001 8:51:00 AM
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press

    RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- Officials on Tuesday welcomed an Australian court ruling to extradite Nazi war crimes suspect Konrads Kalejs to face charges in Latvia, while Jewish leaders said a trial would help this ex-Soviet republic face its past.
    "This is a very good result for us, it's what we were hoping for," Justice Ministry spokesman Leonards Pavils said.
    Earlier Tuesday, a Melbourne court ordered that the 87-year-old Kalejs be returned to his native Latvia, where he's accused of serving as a guard at a notorious concentration camp during the 1941-44 German occupation. His lawyers have appealed the ruling.
    Kalejs, who emigrated to Australia after the war, denies the charges and defense lawyers argue that their client suffers from prostate cancer and dementia and is too ill to be extradited.
    Jewish leaders also praised the Australian court's ruling as an important step toward putting Kalejs on trial in Riga -- a process they said would help Latvians confront the enormity of the Holocaust. Some 80,000 Jews were killed in Latvia during Nazi rule.
    "A Kalejs trial here would be very valuable for people. I hope it will help everyone understand the terrible things that happened here during the war," said Gregory Krupnikov, co-chairman of Latvia's 11,000-strong Jewish community.
    Jewish groups have accused Latvia in the past of being slow to prosecute alleged Nazis. If extradited, Kalejs would be the first suspected Nazi to face trial since the nation regained independence after the 1991 Soviet collapse.
    "The main thing is not to see this old man punished, but to underline that the crimes of the Holocaust can never be pardoned," said Tatyana Zhdanok, a Jewish politician who lost many family members during the Holocaust.

Reuters World Report
Wednesday, May 30, 2001 4:49:00 AM
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.

    RIGA, May 29 (Reuters) -- Poland will urge U.S. President George W. Bush during his visit to Europe in June to let the Baltic states join NATO in its second wave of enlargement in 2002, President Aleksander Kwasniewski said on Tuesday.
    "As a NATO member Poland thinks that Latvia has to be a part of the second wave of NATO enlargement, which will enhance security in the region," Kwasniewski, on a working visit to Latvia, told a news conference.
    "I will say this very thing to President Bush next month: NATO has to maintain its open-door policy, the Baltic states must be accepted as members," he said.
    Russia is sharply opposed to the western military alliance enlarging into former Soviet Baltic republics, annexed by Stalin in 1940.
    Poland, a beneficiary of the first round of NATO expansion along with Hungary and the Czech Republic, insists however that continued diplomatic cooperation with Russia is a key factor in regional security.
    "We are also convinced that security policy (can be fruitful) only if NATO and Russian relations develop... as they have been recently and have been bringing their fruit," Kwasniewski said.
    President Bush plans to visit Europe in mid-June.

Reuters Business Report
Friday, June 01, 2001 11:47:00 AM
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.

    GENEVA (Reuters) -- The former Soviet republic of Lithuania, independent since 1991, has become the 141st member of the World Trade Organization, officials said Friday.
    The Baltic state's entry took effect Thursday, 30 days after it notified the Geneva-based body that the parliament in Vilnius ratified the entry agreement it negotiated with countries already in the WTO.
    With its neighbors Latvia and Estonia, which are already members of the WTO, Lithuania was absorbed into the Soviet Union at the end of World War II.
    About half the 15 republics of the old Soviet Union are now members of the WTO, but Russia and Ukraine -- the two powerhouses of the former communist state -- must still complete entry negotiations after several years of talks.

Reuters Financial Report
Friday, June 01, 2001 4:32:00 AM
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.

    TALLINN, June 1 (Reuters) -- U.S. Coca-Cola , the world's number one soft-drink maker, said on Friday it had increased its share of the Estonian market to around 60 percent from 50 percent by buying the Linnuse Kali kvass brand from Osel Food.
    Coca-Cola said in a statement no financial details are being released about the deal which brings with it the Pilskalna brand of kvass -- a popular soft drink made of rye, sugar and yeast -- in Latvia.
    "The Coca-Cola Company is acquiring Linnuse Kali because of the growth potential of the brand in both Estonia and Latvia," Marketing Manager at Coca-Cola Baltic Beverages Ltd, Aki Hirvonen said in a statement.
    "In the longer run we aim to export outside the Baltic States," he added.
    Transfer of production from Osel foods to Coca-Cola's bottler in Tallinn will take place over four months. The target group for kvass is the over-thirties, the company said.
    Kvass, a traditional Russian soft drink, disappeared from the Baltic market in 1988 before being re-introduced 10 years later, Coca-Cola said.
    According to research by AC Nielsen Latvia it accounts for 20 percent of the region's non-alcoholic drink market.