Military ghost town goes under hammer in Latvia

A TOWN left empty after the withdrawal of Soviet and Russian forces from the Baltic state of Latvia was sold at auction last Friday for US$3 million ($4.26 million pounds).

The buyer of the Skrunda One town, consisting of 45 hectares of land, 70 buildings, including 10 apartment blocks, a hotel, club, warehouses and garages was a company from Russia, the privatisation agency said.

"It is positive that property which has been empty for a long time and where has been no economic activity has been sold," the agency, which carried out the auction of the town sale, said in a statement.

It was sold for 1.6 million lats (US$3.10 million). The agency did not know what the buyer, Aleksejevskoje-Serviss, intended to do with its investment.

Skrunda One, about 150 km (93 miles) west of the Latvian capital Riga, was created for Soviet military needs and is located near a former anti-missile radar base.

Russian troops withdrew from Latvia in 1994, three years after the Baltic states quit the former Soviet Union, but Moscow made a deal to lease the Skrunda radar base until August 1998, after which it was pulled down and the last Russian soldiers left Latvia.

Reuters