The Lithuanian State Border Guard Service (VSAT) is taking over 500 G-36 automatic rifles from the country’s armed forces. Border guards are to receive almost 1,700 more of these weapons from the military in 2022, the VSAT said in a press release on October 4. The G-36 rifles will replace border guards’ weapons that do…
In retaliation for Western sanctions, Russia has closed its borders to trucks registered in EU countries. Lithuanian hauliers said the Russian market accounted for a diminishing share of their business, although markets further east might be lost for ever. When the EU adopted new sanctions in spring banning Russia and Belarus from transporting goods throughout…
100,200 doses of an Omicron-adapted coronavirus vaccine have reached Lithuania, the Health Ministry said on October 3. Adapted to the Omicron subtypes BA.4 and BA.5, the vaccine will be used as the first or second booster shots. Vaccine makers plan to deliver more than half a million doses of the adapted vaccines in October, the…
The Lithuanian Defence Ministry seeks that almost $3 million contributed by the country to a NATO trust fund aimed at supporting Afghanistan’s security forces be transferred to Ukraine. The Cabinet is expected to adopt the respective protocol decision this week. According to the ministry, $2.876 million (2.94 million euros) contributed by Lithuania to the NATO-run…
Lithuania has been living with double-digit inflation for almost a year. Food prices have gone up particularly sharply, by around a third. Economists say consumer sentiment is pandemic-like, which means austerity will drag on, especially as more income will be consumed by heating bills. Food producers and processors are frank – prices will have to…
Lithuania dropped four notches to rank 12th out of 165 countries and territories in the Fraser Institute’s latest Economic Freedom of the World index. In the latest report, based on 2020 data, Lithuania scored 7.82 out of a possible 10 points, 1.1 points lower than a year ago. According to the Canadian think tank, Lithuania’s…
The Lithuanian Defence Ministry on September 30 signed a contract with a Polish company for the acquisition of kamikaze drones for Ukraine. The ministry has said Lithuania will use funds raised in a crowdfunding campaign to buy Warmate drone systems from Poland’s WB Group and hand them over to Ukraine. Deputy Defence Minister Vilius Semeska…