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 honor of Victory Day. Lakatos and several Latvians participated in the bike show. Most Polish politicians were opposed to the motorcyclists’ entry into the country’s territory because the club promotes messages of intolerance and some of its members fight alongside separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The motorcycle club has worked closely with Russian authorities for a long time. The all-time President of the club Alexander Zaldostanov, also known as “the Surgeon” is an associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In early 2015, the Surgeon, together with the actor Mikhail Porechenkov and other famous persons, initiated the establishment of the Russian movement "Antimaidan" aimed "to prevent attempts of overthrowing of the current government like Euromaidan.”
In December of 2014, the US imposed sanctions against the Night Wolves including the Surgeon personally due to their support of annexation of the Crimean and the war in eastern Ukraine. In February of 2015, Zaldostanov was banned from entering Canada for the same reasons.