RIGA, Latvia (AP) — In a ramshackle hockey rink, 12-year-old Kristaps Cerps slides up to the puck and slaps it across the ice into an unguarded net.
      "Latvijas uzvara! (Latvia's win!)" he shouts.
      Like many youngsters in this former Soviet Baltic republic of 2.5 million, Kristaps dreams of playing for Latvia's national hockey team, which will compete in the Winter Olympics for the first time since 1936.
      But many Latvians fear that by the time Kristaps and others his age will be old enough to play in the Olympics, the team will be a shell of what it is today and no longer capable of competing with the world's best.
      The aging players who will go to Salt Lake City for the Feb. 8-24 Olympics were weaned in the rigid but highly efficient Soviet hockey system, which produced some of the world's best players with generous state funding and tuition-free hockey schools.
      Since Latvia regained independence during the 1991 Soviet collapse, however, there's been precious little money to develop talent and keep good players at home.
      "The system would take care of you then if you could play," said Ugis Magone, a youth coach who grew up competing with players on the Olympic team. "Now, it all falls on the parents, and most of them can't afford it."
      The players on the Latvian team, which faces Austria on Feb. 9 in the first of three preliminary games in Salt Lake City, are among the oldest to take part in the Olympics, with an average age of 31. Several players have said they'll retire after the games.
      "I don't see many young players who can replace them," said Arturs Vaiders, sports editor for Diena, a leading newspaper in Latvia.
      At a hockey store across from where Kristaps and several other children were playing, a hockey outfit -- skates, jersey, shorts, pads, stick and helmet -- costs 200 lats (dlrs 325), slightly more than the average monthly wage.
      The price of goalie equipment — another 150 lats (dlrs 240) — explains the unguarded net across the street, says store owner Dmitri Yeryomin, a former scout for the Boston Bruins.
      Every player on Latvia's Olympic squad plays in other countries, including five in the NHL -- defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh of Florida, goaltender Arturs Irbe of Carolina, center Sergei Zholtok of Minnesota, defenseman Karlis Skrastins of Nashville, and goaltender Peter Skudra of Vancouver.
      The country's professional league, one of the best in Europe in Soviet times, is struggling and games rarely draw more than a few hundred fans.
      Latvians still love hockey and they're pinning their Olympic hopes on the national team, which was reassembled following the Soviet collapse and narrowly missed qualifying for the 1994 and 1998 Games.
      When Latvia played Russia at the 2000 World Championship, the Latvian parliament suspended voting so lawmakers could watch the game at a bar. Political foes cheered and sang arm in arm when Latvia beat Russia 3-2.
      The government authorizes about 60,000 lats (dlrs 100,000) a year for the national team and granted players cash bonuses after the win over Russia.
      But the enthusiasm hasn't otherwise translated into more funding for the sport. State funds for youth hockey amount to just 1,900 lats (dlrs 3,000) a year, according to the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation.
      Living standards are improving in this staunchly pro-West nation, pegged as a leading candidate to join the European Union by 2004. And Latvia will play host to the 2006 World Championship, and that could mean extra state money for hockey.
      But Magone fears it may be too late after a decade of decline.
      "People here have been waiting for an Olympic team for so long," he said, "that they aren't looking much farther than Salt Lake City."

      RIGA, Jan 24 (Reuters) — Latvia's prime minister said on Thursday he would ask his government to boost his country's NATO hopes by scrapping language tests which the Russian minority regard as discriminatory.
      Prime Minister Andris Berzins said he would try to persuade reluctant coalition partners to drop the test for election candidates after President Vaira Vike-Freiberga cautioned this week that a lack of action would sink the NATO bid.
      "We will start consultations with our coalition partners," Berzins said after Vike-Freiberga told politicians time was running out to remove the language tests before the November Prague summit that will decide on Latvia's NATO bid.
      Proficiency in Latvian was made a condition for candidates to local councils and parliament after Latvia left the Russian-dominated Soviet Union in 1991.
      Latvia's Russian-speaking community accounts for about one-third of the 2.4 million population -- the legacy of a 50-year Soviet occupation during which thousands were given incentives to migrate to the small Baltic state.
      Since many Russians have not learned Latvian they say the language law effectively deprives them of political rights.
      To placate opposition from Latvian speakers Berzins said he would seek an amendment to the constitution guaranteeing the language's official status in return for removing tests.
      "With such a precondition we could change the election law, especially if (not changing it) would delay or would put a big question mark on our entry into NATO or the EU," he said in a Radio Latvia interview.
      Berzins said the changes could be made by Latvia's general election, due on October 5. The seven-million strong Baltic states Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are likely to win invitations but NATO is unwilling to import ethnic tension into the alliance.
      The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the continent's leading human rights watchdog, was content enough with the treatment of minorities to close its monitoring mission in Latvia late last year.
      However, Latvia has long been aware of the OSCE's desire to see the election law changed and the body was expected to continue monitoring the issue after the mission's closure.

      RIGA, Jan 25 (Reuters) — The United States has urged Latvia to scrap language tests seen as discriminatory toward its Russian minority and an obstacle to the Baltic country's bid to join NATO, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
      U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage conveyed the message in a letter to Latvian Foreign Minister Indulis Berzins.
      The call came after President Vaira Vike-Freiberga warned Latvians on Tuesday that lack of action on the law would sink the country's NATO bid. NATO does not want ethnic tension within the alliance and makes fair treatment of minorities a condition for new members.
      The letter said the U.S. backed the decision last year by human rights watchdog the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to close its monitoring mission in Latvia, a signal of approval for Riga's minority policies.
      "Now, however, we look to your government and parliament to amend the language requirements in the election law, as your president so courageously promised to undertake," Armitage said in his letter, a copy of which was released by the ministry.
      Proficiency in Latvian was made a condition for candidates to local councils and parliament after Latvia left the Russian-dominated Soviet Union in 1991.
      Latvia's Russian-speaking community accounts for about one-third of the 2.4 million population -- the legacy of a 50-year Soviet occupation during which thousands were given incentives to migrate to the small Baltic state.
      Since many Russians have not learned Latvian they say the language law effectively deprives them of political rights.
      The OSCE left Latvia with a promise to continue to monitor Riga's stance on the language issue. But politicians facing a general election by October have been reluctant to irk Latvian national feelings by boosting rights for Russian speakers.
      Prime Minister Andris Berzins said this week he would ask his coalition partners to back change ahead of NATO's Prague summit in November, which will decide which candidates will be issued membership invitations.
      Washington's backing is seen as key for the seven million strong Baltic states Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia winning invitations to join U.S.-dominated NATO.

      STRASBOURG, Jan 25, 2002 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) — The European Court for Human Rights on Friday passed a verdict on the lawsuit by Tatyana Slivenko, a Russian national, against the government of Latvia.
      The Court ruled that Slivenko's expulsion from Latvia ran counter to three articles of the European Covenant on Human Rights, the Slivenko family lawyer Vitaly Portnov told Itar-Tass.
      The verdict was forwarded to the Latvian government and to the lawyer in charge of the Slivenkos case in Moscow.
      The court offered the sides to try and attain an amicable agreement as the first stage. If an amicable settlement of the conflict is not possible, claims on violation of human rights will be made to the Latvian government
      The family of the former Soviet, and then Russian, Army officer Slivenko arrived in the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1977 when the head of the family was missioned for service at a Soviet military base there. He retired in 1994, when Latvia had been an independent country for three years.
      The Latvian authorities expelled the family on the pretext that none of the Slivenkos' relatives had lived in the Latvian Republic before 1940, when it was incorporated into the Soviet Union.
      Before the Slivenko's expulsion, the Latvians stripped the family of their documents and organized a search in their Riga apartment. Nikolai Slivenko, his spouse Tatyana and their underage daughter Karina were compelled to move to Kursk in southwestern Russia. They have been denied an opportunity to go to Latvia to visit Tatyana's elderly parents.
      Tatyana Slivenko filed a complaint with the Court at Strasbourg in January 1999. The Russian government offered to participate in the process as a third party and as a state authority in April last year under Article 36 of the European Covenant for Human Rights.
      Court hearings began November 14, 2001, but the verdict was postponed twice as the judges had different opinions. Under the initial schedule, the judges were to announce their decision in mid-December, and the announcement date was then put off to January 9, 2002.

      WASHINGTON, Jan 26, 2002 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) — Latvia is one of the strongest candidates for the EU membership, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said.
      On Friday, the IMF made public a report on the economic development in Latvia in 2000-2001.
      In 2000 Latvia's GDP increased by 6.6 percent and in the first half of last year it increased by 8.75 percent. Inflation is controlled by the state: in 2000 and 2001 its growth reached only 3 percent.
      The IMF board of directors gave a high assessment to the Latvian government's strong economic and structural policy. At the same time, the IMF noted that the deficit of the balance of payment in 2000 was 6.9 percent of the GDP. The Fund urged Latvia to continue the discipled economic policy in order to improve the development in the state sector and carry out structural economic reforms.

      MOSCOW, Jan 31 (Reuters) — President Vladimir Putin ruffled diplomatic tradition on Thursday by using a formal Kremlin reception to chide the new Latvian ambassador over his country's treatment of ethnic Russians.
      Moscow has long complained about what it says is the unfair treatment of the large Russian minority in the Baltic state, which the Soviet Union annexed in 1940 and which regained independence in 1991 when Communism collapsed.
      Latvian ambassador Normans Penke was among 10 new envoys presenting credentials to Putin at a ceremony in an ornate Kremlin hall. Putin made customarily polite comments about each of the countries in turn, praising Ghana for building stability in Africa and noting "ever more dynamic ties" with Luxembourg.
      But when he came to Latvia his words were unusually testy.
      "A necessary condition for forming relations of long-term cooperation is the observance of democratic standards of human rights and the treatment of ethnic minorities," Putin said.
      "Our compatriots in Latvia should feel like fully-fledged citizens, participants in the public and social life of the country."
      The envoy took Putin's remarks in diplomatic stride.
      "In his official speech, he devoted a lot of time to Latvia, which is a good point. In general his remarks were positive and based on a constructive wish to develop good relations," Penke told Reuters after the reception.
      Over the past few years Latvia, seeking to join the European Union and NATO, has liberalised citizenship laws that left many ethnic Russians officially stateless for much of the 1990s.
      But other rules still require fluency in the Latvian language for candidates for public office. President Vaira Vike-Freiberga has called on parliament to remove the language requirements, saying they could threaten Latvia's NATO bid.
      Penke said Russian speakers in Latvia had full rights.
      "They just go through naturalisation to become citizens of Lativa, it is as simple as that," he said. "They have every chance to do this and become fully-fledged citizens of Latvia and the Russian government also supports this."

      PRAGUE, Feb 1 (Reuters) — Future members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation will face tougher army reforms than the first post-Communist members who joined the alliance in 1999, Czech Defense Minister Jaroslav Tvrdik said on Friday.
      The Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary were the first former Warsaw Pact members to join the NATO in 1999, bringing its total membership to 19.Their armed forces are still struggling to meet NATO's demanding standards.
      "There will be much more pressure on newcomers invited at Prague's summit (in November) as for their military readiness than there was on us," Tvrdik said. "The invitation, if given, means a very tough time for newcomers."
      In January, NATO Secretary General George Robertson said new members have to add value to NATO and that the alliance will impose heavy conditions on those who want to join.
      "I can imagine that applications of invitees may even be turned down if they fail to meet military requirements," Tvrdik added.
      Diplomats and analysts believe at least four countries, and possibly up to seven, will be invited to join in a second wave of NATO enlargement.
      Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are among the leading contenders for membership. Diplomats say the decision on the applications by Bulgaria and Romania could go either way, while membership for Macedonians and Albanians is a distant prospect.