In the US Latvia is known for its musicians. Young Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons has just taken over the Boston Symphony as music director. Atonenko and Garanca are household names as singers of opera. Now the country has made a strong showing in its firt year using the Euro.
Latvia will enter its big year in the European Union’s spotlight in the style that all politicians like: according to projections, it will prove to be the fastest-growing economy in the eurozone in 2014, its first year using the common currency. It had already topped the EU’s growth league in 2013 and 2012, and ranked second in 2011.
Jānis Dūklavs, 62, initially became Latvia’s agriculture minister – a post traditionally reserved for the Union of Greens andFarmers when they are in government – in 2009. That year Dūklavs, previously unaffiliated, joined the Union, but – along with his party – was out of power from 2011-14.
On the dark side, Gajlina Karmača, who is the financial director at the company Lage Ko, which owns the Gan Bei and other restaurant franchises, is being held under suspicion for being one of the core masterminds of an organized crime group that rigged cash register accounting software to avoid paying up to €800,000 a month in duties to state tax authorities.
