BNN summary of the week: oligarchs grabbed by the throat. Euthanasia yay or nay? Bad news for ports – bnn-news.com

This week an unexpected development occurred in Latvias political space. For years theres been talk of Andris les and Ainrs lesers dirty politics, because the names of both of them too often appear next to Aivars Lembergs. On top of that, both of them are also known as participants of so-called oligarch talks. But there have been no official charges. Until now.

The office of the prosecutor presented both oligarchs charges for fraud and money laundering this week. The same day authorities announced official charges against him, lesers, in an attempt to make himself into a martyr, announced everything is bad in Latvia, which is why he intends to return to politics. But he is not desperate enough to join forces with Aldis Gobzems, however.

This week there was also the discussion about the upcoming port reform. During this decision, participants mentioned multiple times the governments planned port reform has not economic justifications and that it will have critical consequences for Latvias transit sector. Businessmen are still trying to make the government listen and come up with a better plan for both the ports and the state to develop.

This week there were also heated discussions regarding the possibility of legalizing euthanasia in Latvia. The Saeima received a public initiative in favour of legalization of euthanasia, but the majority of the parliaments deputies decided that this procedure should not be available in Latvia, at least for now. The discussion did, however, help outline the lack of palliative care in Latvia.

BNN gives you a summary of the key events of the past week, told in news stories of the following topics: Oligarchs; Pointless reform; Life; Unfair compensations; Unforeseen needs; Quarantine in Lithuania; Lifetime tsar.

Andris le (L) and Ainars lesers (R). Photo: Lita Krone/LETA

The Office of the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Latvia has arrested the shares owned by Latvias ex-prime minister Andris le and ex-transport minister Ainrs lesers in companies. This is done as part of the criminal process on possible illegalities committed in the digital television introduction process, according to information available on the website of the Enterprises Register.

BNN had previously reported that an arrest was put on the property of the accused in the digital television criminal case. LETA agency is aware that the arrest was put in some real estate property and company shares owned by lesers and le.

Information available from the Enterprises Register states that on 23 March an arrest was put on les property shares worth EUR 88 888 in Uzmumu vadba un konsultcijas company and shares worth EUR 4 020 in TA sabiedrba.

Screenshot from discussion stream

There are still many concerns about the government-approved port reform in Latvia. Port businessmen, representatives of municipal administrations, and the Foreign Investors Council object to this reform. They are worried the state may engage in business activities at ports, which would be a breach of competition, said CEO of Riga Universal Terminal Jnis Kasalis at a discussion What kind of port management reform is needed for development of Latvian ports: pros and cons on 22 March.

Businessmen and representatives of municipal administrations are supportive of the idea to implement Lepajas model in Riga and Ventspils. This means putting representatives of municipalities, businessmen and investors in port authorities. Liepaja Mayor Jnis Vilntis stressed that after the Liepjas Metalurgs saga the city has managed to successfully develop port territory, adding that Liepaja remains the only one of Latvias large ports to have retained freight volumes. This was also mentioned by heads of Ventspils and Riga freeports.

Photo: Ieva ka/LETA

On Thursday, 25 March, following lengthy debates Latvias parliament decided to decline the collective initiative submitted by more than 10 000 residents in which it was proposed to legalize euthanasia.

49 deputies voted in favour of this initiative, 38 voted against, and two abstained. With this vote members of the parliament supported the decision made by the Mandates, Ethics and Submissions Committee to decline the collective initiative.

Committee chairperson Janna Kurste-Pakule said at the meeting of the Saeima that people have to think what patients desire to die means for medical personnel, considering the Hippocratic oath requires doctors to save lives, not end them.

Photo: Pixabay

Following an audit of whether or not employers in the public sector act in accordance with regulations when it comes to termination of employees and subsequent payment of compensations, the State Audit concluded that in most cases employers do not sign agreements with their employees to prevent competition among public sector employers, but rather to resolve problematic situations when employees refuse to terminate their employment or provide certain employees with special treatment, as reported by State Audit.

The audit institution notes this conclusion is demonstrated by the findings in Latvian Railway and University of Latvia. Additionally, because of inappropriate behaviour of employers in the public sector, employees have had the option to receive money for both restricted work opportunities and become unemployed and receive benefits for this status simultaneously.

From the perspective of regulations, the aforementioned agreements are intended to deny the employee the right to enter the market or work in jobs that are in direct competition to their former employer.

Photo: Pexels

Latvias state budget programme for emergencies will be increased by another EUR 500 million this year, increasing it to EUR 1.32 billion.

Initially it was planned to allocate EUR 26.73 million towards this budget programme in 2021. In January Finance Ministry submitted an order to the government and Crisis Management Council to increase this amount by EUR 300 million. In February the government supported Finance Ministrys proposal on allocation of an additional amount of EUR 500 million towards the budget programme for emergencies, increasing the available funding to EUR 826.73 million.

On Wednesday Finance Ministry will ask the government to decide on allocation of an additional amount of EUR 500 million towards state budget programme for emergencies, making it so that the total amount available in the budget programme reaches EUR 1.32 billion.

Lithuanian Minister of Health Arnas Dulkys receives a dose of Covid-19 vaccine. Photo: 15min.lt/SCANPIX

As Lithuania faces yet another increase in Covid-19 cases with more infectious variants of the virus present in the country, the government has decided to extend the long-standing quarantine until the end of April and to return travel restrictions between municipalities for Easter, Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT and Modesta Gauait-Znutien report.

The data show that the number of new cases per 100 000 population in 14 days was almost 280 in recent days, the proportion of positive studies in 7 days was over 7%. The average number of cases in 7 days is 611. In general, in the last two weeks, the number of cases and the share of positive tests have unfortunately started to increase, informed Lithuanian Minister of Health Arnas Dulkys at the government meeting.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: ZUMAPRESS.com/SCANPIX

The Russian State Duma has adopted a bill permitting long-time President Vladimir Putin to run for two more terms or 12 years in office, Russian state news agency TASS reports.

The bill was made possible by the amendments of the Russian Constitution passed in 2020.

In addition to making Putin eligible for two more presidential terms, the bill passed in the third reading this week sets forth that requirements to seek the nations highest office are:

at least 35 years of age

having lived in Russia continuously for at least 25 years

and not having had foreign citizenship or overseas residency permits.

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BNN summary of the week: oligarchs grabbed by the throat. Euthanasia yay or nay? Bad news for ports - bnn-news.com