kerkko.fi

Latvia sells entire town to Russian firm

A Russian company, Alekseevskoye-Serviss, bought an entire Latvian town for EUR 2.2 million at a privatization auction. The former military installation of Skrunda-1 is deserted and its 70 buildings are in disrepair. The town used to be home to 5,000 military personnel, who worked two enormous radar facilities in the area. The property spans 45 hectares and has several residential buildings, a school, officers club, sauna, and a medical clinic.

Skrunda-1, which is located in Latvia's Kuldiga region, was built in the 1980s. The military installation had one of the so-called Hen House radar systems that could listen to objects in space and watched the skies for NATO missiles. The Pechora radar facility was a 19-story building that soared over the Kurzeme countryside. It was exploded by US demolition experts in 1995. The last residents left Skrunda-1 in 1998. No one has lived there since.

http://balticreports.com/?p=9605

Filed under: Latvia Russia Skrunda
2 comments
Feb 15, 2010
Kerkko Paananen said...
Russia's state-owned oil company, Rosneft, denied that it was behind the acquisition of the former Soviet radar base, Skrunda-1, in Latvia. Press reports claimed that Rosneft would have acquired Skrunda-1 through intermediaries.

http://rus.delfi.lv/archive/index.php?id=29922217

The Russian-registered company, Aleksandrovskoye-Servis, bought the property at an auction on 5 February 2010. The Baltic Course reported that the funds for the purchase may have come from the Russian finance company, Baikal.

http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/real_estate/?doc=23384

Feb 15, 2010
Kerkko Paananen said...
Did Kremlin Oil's Baikal Finance Group just reappear in Latvia? #Latvia #Russia #Rosneft

Leave a comment...

To Posterous, Love Metalab
statistics for vBulletin