Contents tagged with Latvia
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Member of the Russian Night Wolves motorcycle club expelled from Latvia
State Border Guard representative Yevgeniya Pozniak told Latvia’s main information agency LETA that the State Border Guard deported Igor Lakatos to Russia. Lakatos is a representative of the Russian motorcycle club "Night Wolves" and is on the list of undesirable persons in Latvia. Richard Kozlovskis, the Minister of Internal Affairs, had blacklisted Lakatos on the basis of security services reports.
The Night Wolves were responsible for organizing last year’s race from Moscow to Berlin in …
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Latvia bans broadcast of Russian channel RTR-Planeta
The rebroadcasting and distribution of Russian channel RTR-Planeta’s programs have been banned in Latvia. This decision was made by the National Electronic Media Council (NEPLP) on April 7th.
"Any ban is an indication of weakness," said Petr Fedorov, head of the International Relations Directorate at VGTRK. According to him, a national regulator "attempts to force VGTRK to censure their programs."
At the end of March, Sputnik Latvia lost the right to use the domain .lv for its online portal …
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Latvia has built the first 3 km of a fence along the border with Russia
The representative of the State Border Guard of Latvia, Evgenia Poznyak, stated that the first three kilometers of a fence has been built along the Latvian-Russian border, Leta reported. The fence is three meters high and was built on the territory of the Ludza Border Guard Service.
The Ludza region borders with the Pskov region of Russia and the Vitebsk region of Belarus. Latvian authorities are planning to complete the construction of the fence in four years. The building of the fence was …
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Pro-Kremlin British journalist deported from Latvia
On the night of March 17th, pro-Russian blogger and journalist Graham Phillips, who was arrested during the events at the Freedom Monument, was deported to Russia. According to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Latvia, Rihards Kozlovskis, Phillips was also included on the "black list.”
The Minister stressed that Phillips is a citizen of the EU, so he is prohibited from entering Latvia for 3 years. Taking into account the fact that Phillips arrived in Latvia by car, he could not be deported …
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Ukraine coordinates preparation of Savchenko sanctions list
The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, during a meeting with Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Linas Linkevičius, began coordinating the preparation of Savchenko’s sanctions list with the European Union and the US.
According to the press service of the Ukrainian President, during the meeting, Poroshenko commented on the positive efforts of Lithuania to secure the release of Nadiya Savchenko. The parties also coordinated the preparation of Savchenko’s sanctions list.
Poroshenko …
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Latvia detects Russian warships near its territorial waters
The Latvian National Armed Forces has detected Russian warships in its economic zone.
"In the Latvian economic zone, at a distance of 20 nautical miles from the state border, armed forces detected a Russian warship of the Steregushchiy class, a submarine technical support vessel of Kashtan class and the Kilo class submarine," this was stated in a message on the Armed Forces of Latvia’s Twitter page.
It is worth noting that NATO counted 250 recent interceptions of Russian military aircraft in …
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Baltic States expect a larger NATO presence
The Baltic States are expecting an expansion of NATO troops on their territory, as was stated by the head of the Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edgars Rinkēvičs.
In July, at the NATO Summit in Warsaw, the Baltic States will need a “very strong statement” from the alliance that “will stay there until as long as we’ve got such a neighbor [Russia],” he said in an interview with the Washington Post.
According to the Minister, he “is convinced that the NATO Military Contingent staying in the …
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Russian plane violated Lithuanian airspace twice last week
The press service of the Ministry of Defense of Lithuania reported that Lithuanian fighters intercepted a Russian aircraft on two separate occassions last week.
On February 17th, fighter jets were scrambled from the Siauliai Airbase to intercept a Russia IL-20 transport plane heading for Kaliningrad. Two days later, the same aircraft was intercepted and esorted by Lithuanian fighters on its way back to mainland Russia.
According to the Ministry of Defense of Lithuania, the Russian IL-20 …
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Russian paratroopers to hold large-scale exercise near Latvian and Estonian borders
Russian airborne troops will hold a large-scale exercise in the Pskov region near the Estonian and Latvian borders, as reported by Radio Svoboda. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the exercises will be held from the 15th to the 20th of February, and will involve 2,500 paratroopers and 300 pieces of military hardware.
The announcement comes after last week’s surprise inspection of Russia’s Southern Military District and subsequent training exercises in southern Russia and the Crimea, …