26 articles
It is unlikely Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis expected that a protest of discontent teachers over their wage payment scheme would turn into a protest of thousands in front of the cabinet building. It is now the prime minister’s turn to ponder on how to come to terms with the public sector, otherw...
With the elections right around the corner, much is spoken about major parties, leaving smaller political entities overlooked. Experts in the economic, social and political fields review various proposals made by the List of Lithuania Party.
City authorities recently removed four groups of Soviet-era statues from the Green Bridge in central Vilnius. Columnist Ramūnas Bogdanas argues that it was a move in the information war that Russia has launched against the West, including Lithuania. The retaliation that followed targeted crucial mom...
Throughout the ages, people have migrated in search of a better life. For some it was about security, for others getting a bit more to eat and then there were those driven by curiosity. The special ability of a person to adapt to new conditions led to us spreading across the world.
On 8 May, Lithuania is joining Europe in commemorating victory over Nazism. Russia celebrates its own Victory Day on 9 May. The Germans signed the instrument of surrender in Reims, France, on 7 May 1945. It was to come into effect at 11 PM on 8 May.
On 26 March, fifteen years ago, Vladimir Putin was elected the president of Russia. The moment coincided with the start of a global oil price boom that brought billions in additional revenue to Russia.
Can we speak about our former enemies and talk to them, or shall we keep the distance, ignore and insist that they are not worth our attention? I’ve concluded the following: if we are scared of something, we tend to pretend that it simply does not exist. If we are able to look into the eyes of the f...
This January, the Vilnius-based Eastern Europe Studies Centre organized a big two-day international event for experts, politicians and intellectuals. The centrepiece of the second day of the conference was an address by Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
The first day of this year is the first day of Lithuania with the euro. It is an unavoidable fact, although probably everyone is already tired of hearing the word euro. I must admit: it is certainly much better that the euro is not in everyone’s lips but in everyone’s pockets. Soon enough the curren...
As the saying goes, a pessimist is just a well-informed optimist. Russia's president is able to get any kind of information, but this is not enough: it is important how this information is processed and used. One can judge from Vladimir Putin's 3 hours and 10 minutes long press conference, where he ...
In the ideological part of his annual address, Vladimir Putin explained how spiritual Russia was and that it would never succumb to the West that has been trying to ruin it for centuries. In the economic part of the speech, he gave the recipe of what should be done to maintain prosperity.
The new Ukrainian Government has been appointed one year after the Euromaidan revolution began in Kyiv. In November 2013, those who felt mostly betrayed by President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych crowded in the Maidan of Kyiv.
A small episode recently has shown that Russian President Vladimir Putin feels like he is a know-it-all who can ignore his advisory team. It happened in Beijing during the fireworks show for the APEC summit participants.
One year ago, on 8 October 2013, US energy giant Chevron, which had won the competition for exploring and digging into Lithuania’s shale gas deposits, announced it was leaving the country. To this Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius responded: if you want to leave, then leave. The market is big, oth...
There is one thing that neither fans of Russia nor patriots of Ukraine in Odessa or Nikolayev can dispute. All totally agree that Russia attacked Ukraine.
