Latvia wants to Collect $200 Billion from Russia

Latvia is a former Soviet republic, and has calculated the damage that Latvia suffered from the Soviet occupation after WWII. It has been 48 years and Latvia claims Russia owes Latvia $200 billion. The amount includes Latvia’s costs for the loss of its independence, the export of the population, the environmental damages and even the Afghan war and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Latvia plans on collecting from Russia with the help of the European Union. This will be a very interesting case to watch and see what the results are.

The amount was calculated by a governmental committee, which the nation supposedly suffered as a result of the Soviet occupation. Latvia currently is very close to bankruptcy and desperately has decided to solve its financial problems at Russia’s expense.

The members of the committee said that they based their calculations on the assumption of how the Latvian economy could have developed if the nation had not become a member of the Soviet Union.

This seems like it would be a difficult case to prove.

Latvia would have at least become a country like Finland if it had not been “occupied” by the Soviet Union. Its GDP would have grown by at least $246 billion from the 1950s to the 1990s, Latvian officials claim.

The most curious thing about it is as follows. As it turns out, Soviet “occupants” plundered Latvia ’s national endowment – its mineral resources, namely two million cubic meters of sand and, more importantly, 32,038,127 cubic meters of dolomite rocks totaling $319 million.

The authors of the report believe that all those “treasures” were used to satisfy the needs of “the army of occupants.” What the army do with so much sand and dolomite rocks?

As a matter of fact, “the Soviet aggressors” were building industrial enterprises and apartment buildings for the Latvian citizens. It may seem at first sight that such activities can not do any harm to anyone, but Latvian official say that “the occupants” were destroying the nation’s ecology. The ecological damage was evaluated at $706 million.

Latvia did not forget the Chernobyl disaster, Latvia barely suffered from the explosion of the nuclear power plant, but Riga considers the catastrophe as an attempt to cause damage to the health of the Latvian nation. The damage was evaluated at $283 million.

Popularity: 4% [?]

• Posted in: Russia, Soviet Union (USSR), Economic Development and Trade Ministry
• Comments: 0

Siberian Mammoth and Meteorite to Go on Christie’s Auction

The skeleton of a Siberian mammoth dating back some 15,000 years and a meteorite from Russia go on auction in Paris, April 16, in the first such sale of curiosities from paleontogy, Christie’s auction house said Tuesday.

Popularity: 18% [?]

• Posted in: Russia, Nature & Environment, Mammoth, Siberia, History, Christie's, Auction, Meteorite
• Comments: 1

Jewish Group May Sue Russia Over Seized Writings

Members of a Hasidic Jewish movement may sue the Russian government in an effort to recover 18th-century religious writings and prayers seized by the Nazi and Soviet armies, the Associated Press reports.

Popularity: 9% [?]

• Posted in: Russia, Israel, U.S., Nazis, WWII, Court, Poland, Bolsheviks, History, Latvia, Jew
• Comments: 0

Gorbachev Objects to Building Wall Between U.S. and Mexico

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev criticized U.S. plans to build a 700-mile (1,130-kilometer) fence on the nation’s southern border, AP reports.

Gorbachev, visiting President George W. Bush’s hometown on Tuesday for a lecture series at The University of Texas of the Permian Basin, said fixing the border requires new ideas and cooperation.

“I don’t think the U.S. is so weak and so much lacks confidence as not to be able to find a different solution,” he said in report published in Wednesday editions of the Midland Reporter-Telegram.

Bush signed a homeland security funding bill earlier this month that includes $1.2 billion (A960 million) for fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border to stop illegal immigrants and criminals from sneaking over.

Gorbachev, the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize winner, recalled President Ronald Reagan’s 1987 visit to the Berlin Wall, when he called on Gorbachev to tear down the wall.

“Now the United States seems to be building almost the Wall of China between itself and this other nation with which it has been associated for many decades and has had cooperation and interaction with,” he said.

In a speech that also touched on international issues related to Iraq and North Korea, Gorbachev said the collaboration between the United States and Russia that ended the Cold War “was mostly squandered.”

He said the United States should re-establish a deeper friendship with Russia. He accused the United States of developing a case of “winner’s disease” that is hurting its efforts in international security and cooperation.

“The U.S. seems to believe it has won the Cold War and everything is OK and there is no need for change,” he said in a story in Wednesday editions of the Odessa American. “Now we are in a situation again where we need to rethink what we do.”

Popularity: 5% [?]

• Posted in: Russia, International Relations, Mexico, George W. Bush, Mikhail Gorbachev
• Comments: 0