Baltic States – CIS, Investments, Latvia, Markets and Companies, Real Estate

According to information in the newspaper's possession, the Russian company Alekseevskoe-servis, which has acquired the former Skrunda-1 radar base garrison town from the state at auction for LVL 1,551,966, could be only the intermediary for further deals for this piece of real estate, located in Ranki Country, Skrunda Region.

Local man Ints Folkmanis, who during the National Awakening and the time period up until the Soviet army's withdrawal from Skrunda was the Skrunda Radar Base observer and member of the OSCE international commission, told the newspaper that information had appeared on the Internet on Sunday that the money for this real estate purchase was provided by the Russian finance company Baikal.

Folkmanis was apparently called on Friday evening by a Russian company and told that a pig farming complex would be built on the location, with room for 120,000 pigs. They were interested to find out the OSCE observer's opinion on this. "I personally think that the return of the Russians to this place would be no worse than the arrival of the Danish, Germans or Swedish," said Folkmanis.

The newspaper discovered that the company Alekseevskoe-servis was registered in the town of Kinel in Samara oblast; the only thing which connects it with Latvia is the registered address – 6 Baltija Street. The firm's registered areas of activity are varied, from dealing in real estate to pig-farming and production of animal feed.

The privatization agency will confirm the results of the auction tomorrow, February 9.

As previously reported, the Skrunda radar base garrison town was put up for auction on Friday, February 5, and there were three bidders. The starting price for the property was set at LVL 153,966.