This week talks continued in Latvia about ways to solve the problem of people’s growing public utility costs. There is also the issue of growing food and other product prices.
However, the government has not progressed farther than discussing these issues.
The ruling of Riga Regional Court that orders JSC Grindeks shareholders Kirovs and Filips Lipmans to pay EUR 1.9 million to the state came to force this week.
The situation in Kazakhstan, meanwhile, are slowly improving. Peacekeepers sent there by members states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization to restore order have started leaving the country. Previously Kazakhstan reported the deaths of 44 people and detainment of nearly 8 000 during protests.
BNN gives you a summery of the most relevant events of the past week in the following topics: Living expenses; Large penalty; Addictions of youth; Winds of change in Italy; Sassoli’s death; Kazakhstan; Moscow’s rhetoric.
LIVING EXPENSES
Inflation in Latvia: fresh vegetables become 18.3% more expensive in December 2021
Photo: UnsplashCompared to December 2020, the average level of consumer prices increased by 7.9 % in December 2021.
The greatest pressure on the average price level changes compared to December 2020 was put by the rise in prices of goods and services related to housing, goods and services related to transport, prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, goods and services related to recreation and culture, alcoholic beverages and tobacco products, clothing and footwear, furnishings as well as within the group of miscellaneous goods and services in December 2021 , according to the latest data of the Central Statistical Bureau (CSP).
Over the year, prices within the group of food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 7.2 %.
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LARGE PENALTY
Lipmans family ordered to pay back EUR 1.9 million to Latvian state
JSC Grindeks council chairman Kirovs Lipmans. Photo: Ieva Leiniša/LETAThe ruling in the lawsuit submitted by LLC Public asset manager Possessor against JSC Grindeks shareholders Kirov Lipmans and Filips Lipmans, requesting the latter to pay back to the state the damages caused to the state pension special budget has come to force.
Riga Regional Court has ordered the enforcement of more than EUR 1.9 million from father and son Lipmans. The two now have to pay the amount back to the State Treasury.
The court decided to enforce from Lipmans family a total of EUR 1 903 294, as well as EUR 31 732 for court expenditures, as well as EUR 7 133 in case review related expenses or EUR 1 942 160 in total.
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ADDICTIONS OF YOUTH
Narcotics gradually replace smoking and alcohol among teenagers
Photo: UnsplashTeenagers in Latvia smoke and drink alcohol less when compared to previous years. Use of narcotics, however, remains widely spread, according to data from the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) as mentioned in Latvian Ministry of Welfare report On the State of Children in the Country in 2019-2020.
Ministry of Welfare Department of Children and Family Policy senior expert Lauris Neikens reported at a meeting of Saeima’s Human Rights and Public Affairs Committee and Social and Employment Matters Committee on Wednesday, 12 January, that the percentage of students in Europe who smoke is down, but the use of narcotics and e-cigarettes is up.
The percentage of students in Europe who have tried smoking has reduced from 79.9% in 2002 to 49.2% in 2019.
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WINDS OF CHANGE IN ITALY
In Italy, Berlusconi speaks of bringing down government, if PM Draghi becomes President
Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi waves to reporters as he arrives at the Chamber of Deputies in Rome, in 2021. Photo: AP/SCANPIXAs Italian politicians prepare to elect the EU country’s next President, notorious ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who seeks the post himself, has warned his Forza Italia party would leave the current unity government of Prime Minister Mario Draghi, if the latter gets elected to the top post, British news portal The Guardian reports.
The secret voted by more than 1,000 parliamentarians and regional representatives begins on January 24 and is expected to go through several rounds before a successor to Sergio Mattarella, who steps down on February 3, is elected. There are no official candidates in Italy’s presidential elections, although party leaders usually try to agree on a candidate.
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SASSOLI’S DEATH
European Parliament President dies aged 65
European Parliament President David Sassoli. Photo: EPA/SCANPIXIn Italy, an illness has ended the life of one of EU’s highest officials, President of the European Parliament David Sassoli, Belgian news portal EurActiv reports.
The Italian politician, 65, had been in hospital since December 26, where he was undergoing treatment against a dysfunction of his immune system. Earlier, he had been admitted to hospital with pneumonia caused by Legionnaires disease, where he was hospitalised for several weeks. Sassoli passed away at 1.15am on the night to Tuesday, January 11, according to his spokesperson Roberto Cuillo.
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KAZAKHSTAN
Sending Russian-led troops out of Kazakhstan announced by President Toqaev
Russian CSTO peacekeeper (front) and a Kazakh police officer are seen in a street of Almaty. Photo: TASS/SCANPIXIn Central Asia, Kazakhstan’s President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has announced the withdrawal of the foreign soldiers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which is led by Russia, from Kazakhstan after unrest in the country has subsided, American broadcaster Radio Free Europe reports.
Toqaev addressed the country’s parliament on Tuesday, January 11. The President stated that the CSTO troops will complete their withdrawal over the next ten days now as public order had been mostly restored in Kazakhstan. The CSTO military contingent was deployed to Kazakhstan in the first full week of January after the leadership of the oil-rich country called the Russian-led bloc for military assistance when protests sparked by a fuel price hike turned deadly with security personnel and mobs clashing on city streets nationwide.
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MOSCOW’S RHETORIC
Russia voices disappointment over not reaching its goals on Ukraine
Alexander Lukashevich, Russia’s permanent representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Phtoo: © Georges Schneider/Xinhua via ZUMA Press/ScanpixMoscow’s talks this week on its wishes of Ukraine not joining NATO in the long term and less defences for Baltics and other eastern members of the alliance have not been productive, Russian officials have said as quoted by Belgian news portal EurActiv.
This week, Russian officials met with representatives of the US, as well as the diplomats of the member states of NATO and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. As to the concentration of Russian troops near the border with Ukraine, stressed by the US, the White House stated that the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine remained high with some 100,000 Russian troops deployed.
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BNN summary of the week: Fine for Grindeks owners. Inflation in Latvia. Events in Kazakhstan
