... Environmental Monitoring, or Rosgidromet. The much greater risk comes from transportation, he said, mainly at the ports where oil is being loaded onto tankers. While three modern port facilities in the area have come online, the specific fragility of the Baltic and Russia's antiquated fleet keep the risks as high as the rewards. "The Baltic Sea is no less threatened and vulnerable a zone than the Arctic," said Viktor Afanasyev, deputy rector of the Makarov State Marine Academy in St. Petersburg...

Outspoken U.S. Senator John McCain has criticized President Vladimir Putin for a recent crackdown on protesters, as well as for oligarchy, corruption and activities in the Baltics and Ukraine. Outspoken U.S. Senator John McCain has criticized President Vladimir Putin for a recent crackdown on protesters, as well as for oligarchy, corruption and activities in the Baltics and Ukraine. In an interview with the...

TALLINN, Estonia — Estonia will open the Baltic states' largest maritime museum in a hangar once used by Charles Lindbergh. The main attractions at the 15 million euro ($20 million) Seaplane Harbor will be a British-built submarine dating from the 1930s and a life-size replica of the 184 seaplane...

... supplier and one distribution company. Control over a new, larger distribution company will go to the state. Energy Minister Arvydas Sekmokas on Monday said the decision paves the way for Lithuania to receive cheaper gas from a variety of sources. The Baltic state currently imports all of its gas from Russia. (AP)

... could extend a spur across the Sea of Japan to surface in that country. The gas giant has built up quite a bit of undersea pipeline experience over recent years. In a consortium with Western European partners, it constructed a line to Germany under the Baltic Sea. The company earlier laid a line to Turkey under the Black Sea. In yet another underwater endeavor, Gazprom has scheduled work to begin later this year on a Black Sea pipeline to Bulgaria. 175768 179742

... on April 18 to team with state-controlled Rosneft to gain access to two Russian offshore projects. Earlier in the month it opened production at an Arctic oil and gas field with its local partners. Saipem also laid the Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea for Gazprom. The Caspian-pipeline deal shows LUKoil's steady progress with the Vladimir Filanovsky field. The company pioneered tapping the Russian section of the oil-rich sea — the largest enclosed body of water on the planet —...

... said the huge Bovanenkovskoye field, which is to start production this summer, will provide most of the company's capacity in the coming years. In other news, Markelov said the first phase of the Gazprom-led Nord Stream pipeline to Germany under the Baltic Sea reached full capacity Tuesday, after beginning operation in November. The pipeline's first phase can carry 27.5 bcm per year, and the second phase of the same capacity is expected to start in October. The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service said...

... that are planned to be deployed during the fourth phase after 2020 would, in the best of circumstances, be able to take out no more than 20 Russian strategic warheads — and only if they were to be deployed in a forward position, such as in the Baltic Sea, along the missile trajectory from Russia to the United States. These interceptors deployed in rear positions, such as Poland or Romania, would not have the speed to reach Russian ICBMs already in flight — even if the interceptors were...

... table that a number of points raised such as racism and xenophobia in the EU states were "important," but that some statements didn't "correspond to reality," such as accusations of discrimination against Russian speakers in the Baltics. Valenzuela said some issues were "matters for discussion, but not human rights violations." 171293 179742

... the annual general meeting on June 15. Warnig, who got to know Putin in the 1990s when he worked in St. Petersburg for Dresdner Bank, has since 2006 been managing director of Nord Stream, which has built an underwater gas export pipeline across the Baltic — a priority project for Putin. "They are trying everything they can to lift the stock price — short of selling the Norilsk stake — and the Warnig appointment looks like a marketing move," a Moscow-based analyst said...

... our nation, depend now on us, on actual successes in the creation of a new economy and modern standards of living, on our efforts to care for people and support Russian families, on our persistence in developing the enormous Russian expanses from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean, on our ability to become leaders and a center of attraction in all of Eurasia," Putin said. As he has in the past, Putin expressed his commitment to democratic principles and said Russia should be "successful"...

... 1974 as a sanction against the Soviet practice of limiting the rights of Jews to emigrate. But Medinsky's favorite history-falsification topic is World War II. For example, he claims that Soviet troops never really invaded or occupied Poland or the Baltic states, but only "incorporated" them. This is the standard spurious explanation taken from Soviet history textbooks — the same textbooks that explained how for 40 years Eastern Europeans willingly elected Communists to power in...

... our nation, depend now on us, on actual successes in the creation of a new economy and modern standards of living, on our efforts to care for people and support Russian families, on our persistence in developing the enormous Russian expanses from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean, on our ability to become leaders and a center of attraction in all of Eurasia,” Putin said. As he has in the past, Putin expressed his commitment to democratic principles. “We want and will live in a democratic...