Jānis Urbanovičs
Jānis Urbanovičs (born 23 March 1959) is a Latvian politician and author. He has been a member of the Saeima since 1994. From 2005–2010 Urbanovičs was chairman of the National Harmony Party and from 2010–2014 and again since 2019 the chairman of Harmony. Biography Urbanovičs was born in 1959 in Rēzekne District, Latvia, into a large devout Catholic family of modest means. During World War II his father fought Nazi Germany in the Red Army, while his uncle was in the Latvian Waffen-SS Legion. During his school years, Urbanovičs worked on different irrigation engineering projects, shaping his choice of education. In 1982, he graduated from the Latvian Academy of Agriculture as a hydraulic engineer. At the same time, he mastered cabinetmaking, which is still a hobby today. He then worked as a Chief Engineer leading various construction projects. In 1984, during the early years of Perestroika, he became a part of the LĻKJS, the communist youth league where he soo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Rēzekne
Rēzekne (, ; German: ''Rositten'') is a state city in the Rēzekne River valley in Latgale region of eastern Latvia. It is called ''The Heart of Latgale'' (Latvian ''Latgales sirds'', Latgalian ''Latgolys sirds''). Built on seven hills, Rēzekne is situated east of Riga, and west of the Latvian-Russian border, at the intersection of the Moscow – Ventspils railway and Warsaw – Saint Petersburg Railways. It has a population of 31,216 (2016)«Latvijas iedzīvotāju skaits pašvaldībās pagastu dalījumā» Data according to the Population Register of Republic of Latvia on 01/01/2016, PDF version available at: https://lv.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C4%93zekne making it the 7th largest city in Latvia. Other names The Latgalian name of the city is ''Rēzne'' ( ). Historically in German sources the location has been known as ''Rositten''. Under the Russian Empire the city was named ''Rezhitsa'' (russian: Рѣжица, pl, Rzeżyca, yi, רעזשיצע). History A Latgalian hil ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Jūrmala
Jūrmala (; "seaside") is a state city in Latvia, about west of Riga. Jūrmala is a resort town stretching and sandwiched between the Gulf of Riga and the Lielupe River. It has a stretch of white-sand beach, and a population of 49,325 in 2019, making it the fifth-largest city in Latvia. While Latvia was part of the Soviet Union, Jūrmala was a favorite holiday-resort and tourist destination for high-level Communist Party officials, particularly Leonid Brezhnev and Nikita Khrushchev. Although many amenities such as beach-houses and concrete hotels remain, some have fallen into disrepair. Jūrmala remains a tourist attraction with long beaches facing the Gulf of Riga and romantic wooden houses in the Art Nouveau style. Names and administrative history The name Jūrmala stems from Latvian ''jūra'' ("sea") and ''mala'' ("edge", "side", "margin"), thus "seaside" in English. In 1920, soon after Latvian independence, the town of Rīgas Jūrmala ("Seaside of Riga") was establish ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land, the most of any country in the world, tied with Russia. Covering an area of approximately , it is the world's third largest country by total land area. The country consists of 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two Special Administrative Regions (Hong Kong and Macau). The national capital is Beijing, and the most populous city and financial center is Shanghai. Modern Chinese trace their origins to a cradle of civilization in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. The semi-legendary Xia dynasty in the 21st century BCE and the well-attested Shang and Zhou dynasties developed a bureaucratic political system to serve hereditary monarchies, or dyna ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former Soviet Union, Soviet republics of the Soviet Union, republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, which are colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as the countries all have names ending with the Persian language, Persian suffix "-stan", meaning "land of". The current geographical location of Central Asia was formerly part of the historic region of Turkestan, Turkistan, also known as Turan. In the pre-Islamic and early Islamic eras ( and earlier) Central Asia was inhabited predominantly by Iranian peoples, populated by Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian-speaking Bactrians, Sogdians, Khwarezmian language, Chorasmians and the semi-nomadic Scythians and Dahae. After expansion by Turkic peop ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Commonwealth Of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of and has an estimated population of 239,796,010. The CIS encourages cooperation in economic, political and military affairs and has certain powers relating to the coordination of trade, finance, lawmaking, and security. It has also promoted cooperation on cross-border crime prevention. As the Soviet Union disintegrated, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine signed the Belovezh Accords on 8 December 1991, declaring that the Union had effectively ceased to exist and proclaimed the CIS in its place. On 21 December, the Alma-Ata Protocol was signed. The Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), which regard their membership in the Soviet Union as an illegal occupation, chose not to participate. Georgia withdrew its membership in 2008 following the Russo-Georgian War. Ukraine formally ended its ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Abrene County in Pskov Oblast, Russia
{{Geodis ...
Abrene may refer to: *Abrene, the name which the town Pytalovo in Pskov Oblast, Russia bore in 1938–1945 when it was a part of Latvia * Abrene County, a historical district in Latvia *Abrene, general Latvian name for the territory of Pytalovsky District Pytalovsky District (russian: Пыта́ловский райо́н; lv, Pitalovas rajons) is an administrativeLaw #833-oz and municipalLaw #420-oz district (raion), one of the administrative divisions of Pskov Oblast, twenty-four in Pskov Oblast, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Annexation Of Crimea By The Russian Federation
In February and March 2014, Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. This event took place in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and is part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War. The events in Kyiv that ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych on 22 February 2014 sparked pro-Russian demonstrations as of 23 February against the (prospected) new Ukrainian government. At the same time Russian president Vladimir Putin discussed Ukrainian events with security service chiefs remarking that "we must start working on returning Crimea to Russia". On 27 February, Russian troops captured strategic sites across Crimea, followed by the installation of the pro-Russian Aksyonov government in Crimea, the Crimean status referendum and the declaration of Crimea's independence on 16 March 2014. Although Russia initially claimed their military was not involved in the events, Putin later admitted that troops were deployed to "stand behind Crimea's ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Eurasian Customs Union
The Eurasian Customs Union (EACU; russian: Таможенный союз ЕАЭС, Tamozhenyi soyuz) was a customs union consisting of all the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union. The customs union was a principal task of the Eurasian Economic Community, established in 2000, and succeeded by the Eurasian Economic Union. No customs were levied on goods travelling within the customs union and – unlike a free-trade area – members of the customs union imposed a common external tariff on all goods entering the union. The Eurasian Union negotiated as a single entity in international trade deals, such as the World Trade Organisation, instead of individual member states negotiating for themselves. It came into existence on 1 January 2010. Its founding states were Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia. On 2 January 2015 it was enlarged to include Armenia. Kyrgyzstan acceded to the EEU on 6 August 2015. The original treaty establishing the Customs Union was terminated by the agreeme ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Russo-Ukrainian War
The Russo-Ukrainian War; uk, російсько-українська війна, rosiisko-ukrainska viina. has been ongoing between Russia (alongside Russian separatist forces in Donbas, Russian separatists in Ukraine) and Ukraine since February 2014. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine and supported pro-Russian separatists in the War in Donbas (2014–2022), war in Donbas against Ukrainian government forces; fighting for the first eight years of the conflict also included List of Black Sea incidents involving Russia and Ukraine, naval incidents, Russian–Ukrainian cyberwarfare, cyberwarfare, and Russia–Ukraine relations, heightened political tensions. In February 2022, the conflict saw a major escalation as Russia launched a 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In early 2014, pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted from office as a r ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Corruption Prevention And Combating Bureau
Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB; lv, Korupcijas novēršanas un apkarošanas birojs) is a specialised anti-corruption authority of Latvia. Its aim is to fight corruption in Latvia in a coordinated and comprehensive way through prevention, investigation and education. KNAB was established October 2002 and is fully operational since February 2003. KNAB is an independent public administration institution under the supervision of the Cabinet of Ministers. The supervision is executed by the Prime Minister. It is limited to the control of lawfulness of decisions. KNAB is also a pre-trial investigatory body and has traditional police powers. KNAB represents Latvia at the GRECO Greco may refer to: People * Greco (surname), a list of people with this surname * a masculine variant of Greca (given name), an Italian feminine given name * Greco Mafia clan, one of the most influential Mafia clans in Sicily and Calabria Wine .... The current director of KNAB is Jēk ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Baltic News Network
Baltic News Network (BNN) is a Baltic news website. It was founded on September 1, 2010, providing online news portals, mainly reporting for and about the Baltic region, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia. It is published by ''Latvia Baltic News Network''. The ''Baltic News Network GmbH'' is registered in Austria. It was founded by Fred Zimmer. The Baltic News Network is a member of the ''Independent Media Association Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independen ...''. History BNN was founded on 1 September 2010 by Fred Zimmer to counter perceived Russian disinformation, and emerged as a respected news source for the Baltic region. Based around predominantly selling stories to newspapers in the Baltic region, it has come to be recognized as an important political news source. Refer ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Electoral Alliance
An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political party, political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand in elections. Each of the parties within the alliance has its own policy, policies but chooses temporarily to put aside differences in favour of common goals and ideology in order to pool their voters' support and get elected. On occasion, an electoral alliance may be formed by parties with very different policy goals, which agree to pool resources in order to stop a particular candidate or party from gaining power. Unlike a coalition formed after an election, the partners in an electoral alliance usually do not run candidates against one another but encourage their supporters to vote for candidates from the other members of the alliance. In some agreements with a larger party enjoying a higher degree of success at the polls, the smaller ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |