Latvia is joining Lithuania in banning Russian state television broadcasts because it found that several programs about the Ukraine crisis were tendentious and not in the Baltic nation’s security interests.

If stepped-up US military activity with NATO partners such as Poland and Lithuania seems like a paltry response to Russia’s military occupation of Ukraine’s Crimea province, there’s a reason for that. The modest US show of force – a handful of jet fighters in Eastern European skies and a single warship to the Black Sea – is intended more to calm the nerves of former Soviet republics and satellites nervous about Moscow’s actions in Ukraine, regional experts say, than it is designed to send Russia into retreat with its tail between its legs.

The Lithuanian Parliament, Seimas, held the solemn opening ceremony of the Lithuania-Armenia forum, where MPs, political, scientific, cultural, representatives as well as sport figures, actors, journalists and representatives of the Armenian community participated, Armenian MFA informs Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Russia’s tactics, Grigas writes, take the form of oil sanctions, ‘gas isolation’ and dissuasion of Western firms from investing in Baltic energy projects. Business elites are co-opted through bribes, financial incentives and the ‘appeal’ of Russian business culture, which is network- rather than market-driven. More legitimately, Russian culture is also promoted vigorously.

According to the ambassador, the Lithuanian government further plans to develop bilateral cultural relations in the sphere of culture with the Azerbaijani side and support exchange of experience in the sphere of culture.

The Vice-Minister informed... that the Government of Lithuania this year approved the “Global Lithuania” programme for 2011-2019 and Lithuanians living abroad were engaged in the implementation of this programme, as well as the inter-institutional action plan...

Dainius Rutkauskas came up with a novel way of rebranding his little country. Lietuvos Kvapas is Lithuania's "national perfume" ...Developed by Rutkauskas and two other Lithuanian entrepreneurs and produced by the French perfumery Galimard, Lietuvos Kvapas – literally, "the scent of Lithuania" – is an attempt to create a positive national brand.