Contents tagged with Latvia
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Latvian Parliament passes bill prohibiting high schools from teaching in languages of national minorities
The amendments to the Latvian Law on Education, involving the abolition of bilingual education in schools, have undergone the third and final reading in the Saeima or Latvian Parliament.
According to Delfi news portal, 58 deputies voted in favor of the bill while 18 voted against it. It must now be approved by the President.
The plans of the Ministry of Education and Science indicated that transferring to a new model of education will begin in the 2019-2020 academic year and will be completed …
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Latvian citizen charged with engaging in espionage for Russia
The Prosecutor’s office of the Vidzeme Judicial District of Latvia indicted a Latvian citizen for committing espionage for Russia, as reported by Delfi on March 11th, citing the press service of the Latvian Prosecutor's office.
On February 26th, law enforcement officials provided documentation to the Prosecutor’s office regarding the illegal collection of classified materials with the intent to transfer them to a foreign state and the illegal possession of weapons and ammunition. The Press …
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Head of Latvian counterintelligence speaks of 'quiet deportations' to Russia
The Bureau for the Defense of the Constitution of Latvia (country's counterintelligence) "quietly" deports people from time to time, mainly to Russia, as reported by the Head of the Bureau, Jānis Maizītis.
"The main task of the Bureau is intelligence and counterintelligence, but we cannot always talk about the beginning of a criminal prosecution in this race of the security services. There are cases reported of expulsion from the country but there are also the so-called quiet deportations. In …
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Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs bans entry to 49 persons named in 'Magnitsky list'
The Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has banned 49 persons named in the Magnitsky list from entering the country, as announced by Edgars Rinkēvičs, Latvian Minister for Foreign Affairs, on his Twitter feed.
"Pursuant [to the] resolution of [the] Saeima (Parliament of Latvia), and based on Immigration law, I have banned 49 individuals from entering the territory of the Republic of Latvia, sending [a] clear signal that rule of law and human rights matter," Rinkēvičs wrote.
In early February, …
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Anti-Corruption Bureau of Latvia detained the head of the country's Central Bank
The Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) has detained the President of the Bank of Latvia, Ilmārs Rimšēvičs, in a criminal case, as reported by Delfi, citing the Prime Minister of the Republic, Māris Kučinskis.
"For now, neither I nor any other officials have any reason to interfere with the work of KNAB. The authority operates professionally and accurately. As soon as the KNAB's management deems appropriate to provide the public with information about the investigation, it will …
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Latvia approves imposing sanctions against those on Magnitsky List
On Thursday, February 8, the Latvian Saeima approved the introduction of sanctions against those on the so-called Magnitsky List, Delfi news outlet reports.
The bill, previously approved by the Parliamentary Commission for Foreign Affairs, lists 49 individuals who will be banned from entering Latvia. The results of the vote led the Saeima to call on the Cabinet of Ministers to impose the sanctions. According to the main provisions of the Magnitsky Act, foreigners who are associated with large- …
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Russian spy detained in Latvia
A citizen of Latvia has been detained on suspicion that he was collecting data about military objects and situations in the area adjacent to the Latvian-Russian border and passing it to the Russian special services, according to reports by LSM.lv Latvian news outlet.
No detailed information was revealed for legal reasons to preserve the secrecy of the investigation.
The Latvian Security Police that conducted the arrest elaborated on the statement saying that the Russian special services (FSB) …
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Latvian Ambassador to Russia: if Moscow stations Iskander missile systems permanently in Kaliningrad NATO will have to respond
If the recent permanent deployment of Iskander mobile short-range ballistic missile systems to the Kaliningrad region (the Russian Federation) are confirmed, this could be interpreted as a step toward the imbalance and destabilizing of the situation with Russia, according to the Ambassador of Latvia to Russia, Maris Riekstins, on LTV’s Rita Panorama program.
According to the Rus.TVNET, Mr. Riekstins also said that Russia had not announced the stationing of the missile systems, though there had …
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Former NATO Secretary General becomes advisor to Russian-owned bank in Latvia
Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has been appointed Deputy Chairman of the Board at Latvian bank Norvik Banka, according to the website of the international intelligence community InformNapalm.
Grigory Guselnikov, a Russian banker, is the owner of Norvik Banka; he also controls Vyatka Bank.
In July, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) denied Grigory Guselnikov and Sait-Salam Gutseriev from purchasing the Ukrainian branch of Sberbank.
"This bank [Vyatka Bank] recently tried …
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Latvia puts previously deported Russian journalist on entry-ban list
A journalist from a state-run Russian television station, the TVC, Anatoly Kuravlev, who was detained in Latvia and deported, was also put on the entry-ban list for an indefinite period of time, Latvian Interior Minister Rihards Kozlovskis stated on the LNT Latvian television.
“This is not a prohibition for life, it is a temporary prohibition, which is revised every three years by the authority that issued it, in this case by the Interior Ministry,” the Minister said, however, he did not cite …