Baltic Sea Info Tour/Riga

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Tour Stop in Riga
Riga is the capital of Latvia and with about 700,000 inhabitants the largest city of the Baltic states. Since 2004, Latvia is member of the European Union. Within a radius of several 100 kilometers Riga is surrounded by the nuclear power plants in Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg in Russia, the closed Ignalina NPP in Lithuania, the Swedish nuclear power plants Oskarshamn and Forsmark and the Finnish Loviisa NPP.

The Baltic Sea Info Tour stopped from July 11-13 in Riga. We provided a public information event, a public street action and a regional network gathering here.

Local contact
Baltic Sea Info Tour Support Group
 * email: [mailto:riga.baltic-tourATnuclear-heritage.net riga.baltic-tour AT nuclear-heritage.net]

Travel Schedule of the Riga Stop

 * Monday (Jul 5): travelling from the earlier stop in Helsinki to Riga
 * only those participants who don't join the stop in St. Petersburg


 * Tuesday - Friday (Jul 6-10): preparation of the stop in Riga
 * Saturday (Jul 10): travelling from the previous stop in St. Petersburg to Riga
 * Sunday - Tuesday (Jul 11-13): STOP in Riga
 * Wednesday (Jul 14): travelling to the next stop in Belarus or alternatively to Vilnius

Anti-nuclear Infotour in Riga
On its 5th stop the anti-nuclear “Baltic Sea Info Tour” visited Riga, the capital of Latvia. As in St. Petersburg, the weather was incredibly hot and we had three days full of actions and events from July 11-13. Many people in Latvia don't know much about nuclear energy and the impacts of this dangerous form of energy generation. Latvia has no own nuclear power plants. Besides the local residents we reached masses of tourists from all countries around the sea, as Riga seems to be a popular place for holidays...

The Sunday we had a 3 hour network meeting in the afternoon, where we went deeper into the preparation of a brochure about nuclear facilities around the Baltic Sea which is a project connected to the Tour and we chatted about the Olkiluoto blockade which is going to take place just one week after the last stop of the Tour in Finland. The rest of the day was filled with action preparation for the next days. While some people wrote a flyer about effects of the radioactivity of the Baltic Sea for the normal population, others built a coffin from cardboard, which was to be used in a performance the next day.

With five experienced theatre people in our group, we had a really good performance nearby the Laima clock in the center of Riga on Monday. An atomic funeral procession walked around, catching the eyes of the passers-by. The coffin had a radiation symbol with a skull attached to it and the message “your children, your grandchildren, your grand-grandchildren” in Latvian. Many people willingly took our leaflets, asked questions about nuclear power and were generally interested. Only the police were annoying: They were present with 4 to 6 officers who harped on about some ridiculous rules (seems they had nothing else to do). After two hours in the burning sun we finished our action, having spread about 1,000 flyers.

Thursday was the day of a big panel with 6 lecturers in the Latvian Ministry of Environment, a small four-story building nearby the Daugava river. Chris Busby, a scientist from the UK, discussed the health impacts of nuclear facilities around the Irish Sea as well as around the Baltic Sea. The Belarusian professor Georgy Lepin told about the atomic situation in his country mentioning also international impacts of the nuclear industry. Other presentations covered the radioactive pollution of the Baltic Sea, cancer cases in Latvia and the unsolvable challenge of final disposal of nuclear waste.

Afterwards, another anti-nuclear performance took place in the streets. Activists dressed up as water power, wind power, earth power and solar power chased nuclear power through the streets. This street theatre caught the sympathy of the public everywhere as did not look scaring. The first impression for the hundreds of tourists and locals we reached was a funny performance, but at a second glance the anti-nuclear message was obvious. Many people were curious and asked really interested questions about nuclear power and our action. The hard day was followed by an evening with chilling down and swimming before leaving to Belarus and Lithuania the next day.

Other Information about the Riga Stop

 * Network meeting took place on July 11
 * Public event took place in Ministry of Environment on July 13 at 12 noon.
 * Participants were staying at "Happy Hostel" in Kartupelu iela 8. It's quite close to the city center (~15 min via public transportation). The hostel is located in one of Riga's green zones. No public events took place there. http://www.hosteli.lv/index.html?l=3&m=1
 * HOW TO GET TO THE HOSTEL. Go to the stop near the Central Market (one the market side) and catch trolebus 19 or bus 40. If you use the trolebus, step out in the stop "Kartupelu iela". If you use the bus, step out in the stop "Valdeku iela" and follow the trolebus line until you see a white/grey building. The central entrance is closed so you need to use the one that is in the backyard. In the reception you need to say that you're from "Baltic Sea Info Tour". The staff speaks English, Russian and Latvian.
 * Public transportation. We use E-ticket system (almost the same as in Helsinki). Prices: ticket for 10 trips - 4.75 ls, ticket for 20 trips - 9.00 ls, 24 hour ticket - 1.90 ls, 3 day ticket - 5.70 ls, 5 day ticket - (for 2 types of public transportation) - 7.00 ls.
 * Our currency is Latvian lat. 1 lat is ~ 1.5 euros.
 * Media Coverage:
 * Seminārs „Radiācijas problēma Baltijas jūrā un atomenerģijas radītie draudi videi” - some kind of a press release about our event in Ministry of Environment (July 7, 2010) Latvian
 * Atomic Death in Riga - Indymedia International (July 25, 2010) English
 * Atomic Death in Riga - Indymedia Linksunten (July 25, 2010) English
 * Atomic Death in Riga - Indymedia Germany (July 25, 2010) English
 * Nuclear Baltic Sea Tour events in Riga 11-13 July 2010 - coverage of the infotour in Riga English
 * ПБК: Балтийское море подвержено риску радиации - film about the infotour in Riga (July 14, 2010) Russian

Info Event in the Ministry of Environment
Info event with several lectures about nuclear issues in the center of Riga.