Lawyer Egons Rusanovs: Now is not the time for state pressure against entrepreneurs and citizens

A conversation with lawyer Egons Rusanovs.

The war in Ukraine is becoming more and more devastating. What can Latvians, Latvia, the West do?

We are now busily putting Ukrainian flags on our Facebook profiles, writing harsh and rude comments on the Internet, organizing mass events and protests, sending parcels to Ukraine and perhaps each of us donating something. And - traditionally - we hug and cry. In other words, we soothe our conscience and shame at the collective cowardice of the West. Of course, Latvia supports Ukraine in every way it can, as a small player in the big political arena. The world is also supporting Ukraine through various sanctions. This is, of course, excellent. However, the really important thing that Ukraine is waiting for at the moment, and which the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has pointed out, is the introduction of a no-fly zone over Ukraine, so that the aggressor cannot target and systematically destroy civilian infrastructure while cruelly killing people with impunity.

Thus, those people who are at war or who are hiding in bomb shelters are looking to the West for a different kind of help and support - the closing of the skies and protection if this ban is violated.

A no-fly zone would mean an extremely sharp confrontation between Russia and NATO...

Yes, it would indeed mean that, but it is not possible to fear and make concessions to an aggressor forever. And Zelensky is quite right to stress that if Ukraine falls, the Baltic States will be next. This means that we have to get used to the idea that no amount of name-calling will stop Putin. We may have to endure a few cold winters and other discomforts, but the "sacrifices" we are prepared to make now may not be enough to safeguard our freedom.

What does the Russian attack look like legally, from the point of view of international law?

Russia has committed a war crime, and the perpetrators must be sent to the international tribunal. That is what it looks like legally.

Lithuania is already moving in this direction, but nothing is happening in Latvia, at least for the time being.

However, now is apparently the "right time" in Latvia for an initiative which, to my great surprise, has just been launched by the Prosecutor-General, Juris Stukāns. It is difficult even to talk about this in polite language. Very simply, the idea is to monitor the expenditure of all Latvian citizens, subjecting "dubious" purchases or their monetary equivalent to confiscation in a simplified procedure.

But it should be the other way round! The tax burden should be reduced as much as possible, the work of entrepreneurs should be made easier in some way, the number of financial checks should be reduced. At this point, the economy should be warmed in any way.

Russia is currently trying to help entrepreneurs in all sorts of ways with various incentives. I do not want to make an example of this aggressor country, but I think it should go without saying that Latvia cannot afford to continue its policy of state pressure against entrepreneurs and citizens. Latvia's economy has already been weakened by two years of Covid. Now there are new, very serious and much more significant problems. It is clear that there will be inflation, and we will also feel the effects of the sanctions imposed on Russia, which we will have to endure without grumbling and with patience for the sake of our own future. That is why businesses should be allowed to breathe freely right now, rather than hounding hairdressers, shoemakers, seamstresses and others who have a discrepancy between their declared and real income of only €5000.

If a person cannot credibly explain this discrepancy, or if the evidence provided is deemed insufficient, his car, which he needs to take his children to school or to get to work, or his money will be confiscated. And from now on, everyone will have to declare their income.

One would have expected such a project to come about, but it is now very untimely.

It is obvious that the sanctions will cause various problems for Latvian entrepreneurs who have or have had partners in Russia and for Russian citizens who have businesses and property in Latvia. There may also be problems in complying with the sanctions if a Latvian businessman does not know that one of his partners has been "earmarked" for sanctions. How can such potential complications be addressed?

I know of several examples where this type of problem already exists. For example, one landlord in Riga has made it compulsory for all tenants who are from the Russian Federation to explain the sources of their income. If they fail to explain this, the tenancy contracts will be terminated.

There is one company with Russian capital. This company is a large distributor of goods. At the moment there are reports that some customers have already withdrawn from cooperation, although there are no sanctions against this company.

So there are people who are trying to get involved in this way, to contribute, to express their attitude. Nobody can forbid or allow the signing or non-signing of contracts - it is an individual decision of each economic operator. However, I would not want to compare this type of action with the context or message of the sanctions that the West has imposed on Russia, which has itself withdrawn from business in Russia and is therefore suffering losses both now and in the future. I fully support the sanctions relating to sport, relating to culture - it is clearly the right political decision. It is right that yachts are being taken away from Putin supporters. Moreover, these sanctions are still not enough.

However, the issue is about ordinary people who have nothing to do with Russia's aggressive policy. Moreover, there are many expatriates from Russia in Latvia, and that is precisely why they have emigrated, because they do not like the Putin regime. They, too, have a business. There are also opposition media people in Latvia who have been unable to remain in Russia. Should they then also be prevented from working, earning and paying rent? I do not think that this is quite right.

Of course, it is quite difficult to determine who is a Putin supporter and who is not.

Moreover, I have very great doubts that we in Latvia will be able to react in a balanced and sensible way in this situation.

These issues became topical already in 2008 when the first open aggression by the Putin regime against Georgia took place under a different banner.

Even then, there was dissatisfaction in Russia with this aggression, with the emerging power vertical, at the top of which, in essence, there is now a bloody despot. Many businessmen who were not at peace with this came to Latvia.

There were people who fled Russia because they were being subjected to unfounded criminal proceedings to take away their businesses. But here, people did not believe them that such things were happening in Russia. Certainly not at the official level.

I have a client whose case was not believed by the courts in Latvia, who even laughed in his face, saying that it cannot be. He made it all up to get asylum here. At the time, I tried to convince the court as hard as I could, but I was left with a sad realization about the indifference of our civil servants, but perhaps also of narrow-mindedness. There was a moment when it was no longer far off that this man would be extradited to Russia for prosecution on trumped-up charges, because there was, after all, the belief that there would be a "fair trial" in Russia, where everything would be established objectively.

In the last few days, Russia has already adopted articles of law that make it clear that those who express views contrary to the official one are liable to prosecution - the most serious penalty is up to 15 years. All those who are currently posting on Facebook, protesting against the war and ridiculing Putin's regime have, in fact, already earned a substantial prison sentence under the Russian Criminal Code. If Russia were to occupy Latvia, the new authorities would only have to read what is written on the social network accounts of the people here and draw up lists for Siberia. I have no doubt that there would be many turncoats. It would be just like in 1940, when the occupying power retroactively tried Latvian citizens for "treason against the fatherland" under the laws of the USSR.

If the Latvian government had been more far-sighted, it would have properly monitored the situation in the neighboring country already around 2008, but at that time it was probably not convenient. Such entrepreneurs fleeing Russia should have been supported in every way, allowed to work and make a significant contribution to the Latvian economy.

But instead they chose the simpler option of selling residence permits left and right. And it was never established whether or not the person was a supporter of authoritarian regimes.

And even now, it has not been figured out how these Russian citizens will be screened. Apparently on the national principle - if he's from Russia, he's a bad guy. But then it will definitely be discrimination. And I cannot support that.

You mentioned your client who fled Russia and was not believed here. What are the circumstances of this case?

He had been seeking asylum in Latvia in various ways since 2009. The Latvian Prosecutor General's Office did not extradite him to Russia for prosecution, even though Russia was trying with all its might to have him extradited in order to prosecute him for a crime under an article of the law that was not even in force at the time when he allegedly committed it. He was not granted asylum.

He had refused to organize a mass vote for United Russia in a company he owned - refused to give a bus, refused to give his employees instructions on how to vote.

The authorities then began to blackmail and harass him.

He is now long past the expiry date of his residence permit, has been in Latvia for two years without a passport, which has expired, and is not being granted asylum. For all these reasons, he cannot even receive medical treatment, even though he has a very serious illness. Clearly, he cannot even have a vaccination against Covid and receive the certificate. In other words, he lives with no rights, like a bum. But his daughter is now acquiring citizenship of the Republic of Latvia because she grew up in Latvia, studies here, speaks Latvian and is completely loyal to Latvia.

All this is illogical and inhumane.

However, at one time he had a lucrative business in Russia, very lucrative even, which was pushed back by persons close to the power elite, which he opposed. At the time, the regime threatened him with physical violence and fabricated several criminal cases. For Latvia, this seemed unlikely. What about now, when we see what the pathologically lying Russian regime is capable of? Even now the state authorities in Latvia are not lifting a finger to reach out, to help him. Probably because he is Russian. This means that the authorities, unfortunately, still do not have the necessary scope for the order of things.

And not only the authorities. Slogans, calls to boycott, to deprive, not to work with Russians just because they are Russian, are extremely dangerous.

But harsh sanctions should have been in place at least as early as 2014, because even then it was predictable what would happen next. Instead, the West continued to feed Putin's selfishness, paying him polite tribute, naively hoping that his appetite would stop. Much is now overdue. At the time, the sanctions were ridiculously weak, not to excessively annoy the self-proclaimed grand czar. All this took place in the shadow of the familiar slogan "so that there would be no war". What has it turned into? A complete fiasco of left-leaning Western policy and a disaster for the Ukrainian people.