Ghost town auctioned off for $3.1M

SKRUNDA, Latvia (AP) - Latvia on Friday sold a deserted town built around a Soviet-era radar station to a Russian investor who bid $3.1 million at an unusual auction, officials said.

The town formerly known as Skrunda-1 housed about 5,000 people during the Cold War but was abandoned over a decade ago after the Russian military withdrew from Latvia following the Soviet collapse.

A representative of a Russian investor won the bidding contest in Latvia's capital, Riga, with an offer of 1.55 million lats ($3.1 million), said Anete Fridensteina-Bridina, a spokeswoman for the Baltic country's privatization agency. She declined to name the buyer.

It wasn't immediately clear what plans the buyer had for the 110-acre (45 hectare) property, which is located in western Latvia some 95 miles (150 kilometers) from Riga.

It contains about 70 dilapidated buildings, including apartment blocks, a school, barracks, and an officers' club.

Skrunda-1 was a secret settlement not marked on Soviet maps because of the two enormous radar installations that listened to objects in space and monitored the skies for a U.S. nuclear missile attack.

The Russian military dismantled the radar facilities and vacated the town after the Soviet Union fell apart and Russian troops left Latvia.

Privatization officials hailed the sale, saying it fetched ten times the starting price and signaled a new beginning for the abandoned town.

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Peach reported from Riga.