LITHUANIA: Lithuania's outgoing government bowed to pressure yesterday from a Russian-born pickles tycoon to form a new ruling coalition with his populist Labour party, despite fears he wants to strengthen Moscow's influence over the new EU member.
The deal between Mr Viktor Uspaskich's Labour party and the alliance of Social Democrats and Social Liberals was to be signed last night, ending weeks of wrangling after last month's general elections gave no single party an overall majority.
Talks between the liberal alliance and their Conservative Party rivals - aimed at forming a "rainbow coalition" capable of blocking Labour's path to power - foundered over liberals' demands that the new cabinet retain current Prime Minister Mr Algirdas Brazauskas and reserve seven of 13 ministerial portfolios for their own officials.
Mr Uspaskich, meanwhile, was busy forming alliances with fringe left-wing parties and independent parliamentarians, giving his bloc 53 seats in the 141-seat assembly.
With the liberals' 31 seats, the new coalition will have a clear majority.
Mr Uspaskich, while appearing to Lithuania's urban and rural poor, has stoked worries that Russia is regaining its foothold in the former Soviet republic, just six months after President Rolandas Paksas was impeached for allegedly allowing his office to be infiltrated by the Russian mafia and security services.
