Deserted Latvian town sold for 'bargain' €2.2m
A Russian company has bought an entire Latvian town, which once formed part of the Soviet Union's air defences against NATO, complete with nightclubs, schools and apartment blocks.
Alekseevskoye-Serviss snapped up the now deserted Skrunda-1, which was once home to 5,000 service personnel, for what property agents have described as the bargain price of £1.9m (€2.2m).
For that the company gets 111 acres of land, 10 apartment blocks, a shopping centre, barracks and the other assorted buildings that once comprised the top-secret Soviet radar establishment which scanned the skies for incoming missiles.
Anete Fridensteina-Bridina, from Baiba Briede, the agency conducting the sale, said the town "fetched 10 times the starting price", and that the successful privatisation could give it a new lease of life.
Lying 93 miles west of Riga and still closed to the public, Skrunda-1 has lain deserted since the last Red Army soldier packed his bags and left in 1994.
The Latvian state, happy to see the town off its books, has placed no restriction on what developers can or cannot do. (© Daily Telegraph, London)
- Matthew Day in Riga, Latvia
Irish Independent
