Minister of Transport Ainars Slesers of Latvia

No surprises The sacking of Slesers came as little surprise to Latvian political watchers.

Clearly Slesers is not a happy man and was bent on getting Kristopans and friends.

Tying Slesers to the powerful centre-right opposition People's Party leader Andris Skele, Lembergs said: "Slesers is mere cannon fodder for Skele, and the latter makes use of Slesers's private interests, his thoughtlessness and rashness, in order to gain power.

On 28 November, Mr Slesers is meeting with Germany's new Federal Minister of Transport, Wolfgang Tiefensee.

Latvian transport minister Ainars Slesers has announced that an agreement on the future ownership of Lattelecom has finally been reached between the Transport ministry (which has responsibility for telecoms) and Swedish telco TeliaSonera, and is now pending formal government approval.

is also a designated liaison between the Cabinet and legislature.

nearly brought down the four-party, center-right government.

the Cabinet would mean Latvia's First would leave the government.

Since TeliaSonera has agreed to the proposed privatisation model, Slesers said there will be no auction for the stakes.

Slesers is clearly enjoying the opportunity to turn the tables on SAS, whose decision to sell up a few weeks ago the minister only learned from media reports.

Despite a reputation for sometimes letting his mouth run away with him (even his harshest critics would admit that he is an excellent off-the-cuff speaker) and being generally unpopular with the electorate, Slesers has a reputation for getting things done.

Slesers has previously said that in the next few years Lattelecom has to remain state property.

a television program aired telephone conversations indicating that Slesers had played a role in the affair.

Although the cabinet saw few changes from the previous administration, Slesers was reinstated as transport minister just months after having been forced to resign.

Slesers has earlier said that the government could use its pre-emptive right to buy SAS stake if the price isattractive.

Slesers was in Madrid with other political leaders after the March bombings.

In an interview to the newspaper the Slesers said that, if he is appointed as co-chairman of the intergovernmental task force he would start tackling concrete problems.

Slesers is confident that the entry of the low-fares airlines easyJet and Ryanair, and other airlines’ decision to cut prices will prompt Riga International Airport to become one of the key air traffic hubs in the region.

referring to the fixed-line operator.