After the State Security Service warned the Latvian Russian Union (Latvijas Krievu savienība, LKS) that its activities were not in line with Latvia's national security interests and international legal norms, the party's board has issued instructions to members on how to publicly react or, more precisely, not to directly react to news about the war in Ukraine. Otherwise, the party could be dissolved.
If we continue to look through the catalogue of Ukraine's enemies in Latvia, myrotvorets.team, created by the МИРОТВОРЕЦЬ movement, in addition to natural persons, there are also a few legal entities, including the party Latvian Russian Union, its most important members and employees. The explanatory statement mentions that this political organization is engaged in propaganda of the "Russian world", supports Russian aggression, the party's leader and MEP Tatjana Ždanoka cooperates with Russia, Syria and Belarus, and the party's local MPs vote against aid to Ukraine. Most of the publicly known members of the party are on this list, and of course this makes them uneasy. The party's chief rapporteur in the Riga City Council and member of the party's council, Tatjana Andrijeca, said on social media that on March 16 the party submitted a request to the National Electronic Mass Media Council and the State Security Service to block the website from operating in Latvia. Andrijeca explains that she is "happy to be on the same list with such good people, but these kinds of initiatives need to be tackled at the root". Yes, she herself is also included in the catalogue - with a Russian flag pinned to her profile and a reference to party leader Tatjana Ždanoka - "we should fight not against imaginary threats from Russia, but for the children and peaceful people of Donbas, who have been dying for eight years".
The list of Ukraine's enemies has not been blocked in Latvia, despite the party's request - it is still freely accessible and updatable. A few days later, however, the State Security Service issued a statement "On seven criminal proceedings opened by the State Security Service", the last paragraph of which is dedicated to the Latvian Russian Union: "The public activities of the political party Latvian Russian Union in support of Russia have also come to the attention of the State Security Service. The State Security Service has warned the party that its activities are incompatible with Latvia's national security interests and international legal norms."
The most important word in this quote is "warned", because a warning is a precondition for suspending the party's activities. This is stipulated in Chapter VI of the Law on Political Parties - "Supervision, Suspension, Termination, Liquidation and Reorganisation of a Party". If the authorities referred to in the Law establish that a party does not comply with the laws and regulations or that the party's activities do not comply with the statutes, they shall warn the party in writing and instruct it to remedy the illegal activities. If the party has not remedied the irregularities within the time limit set in the written warning, its activities shall be suspended for a period of up to six months. If the infringement for which the suspension was imposed is not remedied within that period, the court shall decide on the dissolution of the party.
In short, if members continue to publicly support the aggressor Russia, the party's current opulent life, financed by the Latvian state and the European Union, may soon come to an end. In turn, party members may end up where Latvian citizen Kirill Fedorov has just been placed - behind bars. Neatkarīgā already reported that "Detained Latvian 'blogger' is a Kremlin-backed military media outlet". He had significant influence because the brainwashing of an audience of millions in Russia was done on an industrial scale. But the leader of the Latvian Russian Union, Tatjana Ždanoka, has an even bigger platform - the European Parliament. And she is brainwashing Europeans with Kremlin propaganda. Ždanoka was one of the few MEPs who did not support the Parliament's resolution against Russian aggression in Ukraine. Māris Kučinskis, the chairman of the Saeima National Security Committee, has said that he believes Ždanoka should be stripped of her Latvian citizenship. This would not deprive her of her mandate as a Member of the European Parliament, because in the inclusive Europe, "a citizen of the European Union who is not a citizen of Latvia but who resides in the Republic of Latvia" also has the right to stand as a candidate in European Parliament elections.
The Latvian Russian Union and its members do not currently receive any loud good wishes in the public sphere, but the biggest threat to the existence of the pro-Kremlin party is of course the attention paid by the State Security Service. Neatkarīgā asked the State Security Service for further clarification: what exactly are the violations the party has been instructed to prevent, has the party been warned within the meaning of the Law on Political Parties, and - if the party does not fix the violations - will the State Security Service take the party to court and ask it to suspend its activities? Here is the answer:
"We would like to inform you that the State Security Service, within the scope of its competence, has repeatedly found the activities of the political party Latvian Russian Union and its representatives to be inconsistent with democratic values and the interests of Latvia's national security.
In the assessment of the Service, the activities of the party are aimed at justifying the foreign policy of the Russian Federation and the violation of international law norms, as well as at spreading propaganda messages.
The State Security Service has called on the party to eliminate its illegal activities, warning that otherwise the Service will use the instruments provided for by law against it. The State Security Service refrains from further comment at this time."
The party has taken this adequately enough. Miroslavs Mitrofanovs, co-chair of the party, informed Neatkarīgā that the warning of the Service was discussed at the board meeting on Wednesday: "It was decided to react by informing all territorial divisions about what information should not be distributed. How not to react to information about the war. That it should not be preached and supported. That information from unknown or dubious sources must not be disseminated."
The leadership of the pro-Kremlin Latvian Russian Union has forced its members to go underground with all their beliefs, George ribbons, Russian flags and Putin quotes. But this will in no way change their views and the political force's common dream of a Russian-dependent Latvia. The party's political program has not changed since Russia's re-invasion of Ukraine. Here are some of its declared aims:
Russian language in Latvia - equal status with the state language. Autonomy for Russian culture in Latvia. Transfer of citizenship, language and education issues to EU competence. More active cooperation with state and non-state organisations of the Russian Federation. Withdrawal of Latvia from NATO. Lifting of political sanctions against Russia and Belarus.
Special protection of the rights of the Russian-speaking population in all countries.
Increasing the proportion of non-Latvian employees in the executive and judicial branches by setting quotas. Bilingualism in education. And finally, the icing on the cake - the creation of a single political and economic space from Lisbon to Vladivostok, without border and customs barriers. Basically, the party dreams of creating a new Soviet Union. But after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the ideas of the Latvian Russian Union have gone from irrelevant to, at the very least, dangerous.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the existence of the Latvian Russian Union is counterproductive.
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