Latvian Political Monitor

Leave the abuser, but where? Istanbul Convention reveals Latvia's painful gaps

Stepaņenko refuses to talk about the origin of more than 400 thousand euros

"Shout louder! That is very typical of your mentality!" – politicians discuss Latgale and the Russian language

How to reconcile the tasks of NBS soldiers under the Ministry of Defense with the tasks of the border guard under the Ministry of the Interior – conversation with Defense Minister Raivis Melnis and Chairman of the Saeima National Security Committee Ainars Latkovskis (JV): https://t.co/VPGdhBNYb7 https://t.co/DL7mfQmzSO

📣@Janis_Eglits: The international community is currently watching Latvia. We cannot provide military and other support to Ukraine with one hand while helping Russia earn money by using Latvia's ports, railways, and infrastructure with the other. This is also a matter of reputation!

NA urges to immediately ban the transit of Russian grain through Latvia - this is also a matter of reputation! Foreign media report on transit through Latvia and predict that Latvia will be the main export platform for Russian grain this season. This shames the country! https://t.co/I72atDPWgL

@GalvGatis This is exactly the question the journalist @te_anastasija asked him. Note how Šlesers tries to evade this situation.

"We Change the Rules" enters the Saeima elections with the offer to 1) radically change the electoral procedure, 2) conduct a general cleanup in state administration. To change the mindset framework in state administration, to change the approach, to change the rules. Not to personally harm anyone or help someone gain a benefit, but generally to knock our common ark off the self-destructive trajectory of stagnation. The Saeima elections are not elections of specialists. And they are not celebrity elections. For the Saeima elections, a proposal of ideas is formulated, which is put out for the people to evaluate. Those putting forward ideas can also be programmers, little-known book publishers, and organizers of political conferences who, before audiences of unfamiliar people, fumble for words for the first time. For example, Jāzeps Baško. In elections, the people do not vote for the programmer knowing everything, doing everything, and convincing everyone with his fluent language, dazzling smile, or precise factual knowledge. The people vote for the proposal. Even when the people vote for specific individuals, the vote is not for everything to happen according to that person's mind. The vote will be for what the person has published as a political proposal. When a programmer (or whoever is the proposer of the idea) gets public support, then what is proposed becomes binding both for the amateur himself and for the other participants in democracy. The people's voice imposes the duty to push that particular policy. In Latvia this is often not understood, but if a politician you dislike gains 70% public support with some proposal, then it is also your duty to respect it. Because it is not about the politician you personally dislike, but about the society behind him. So be careful with your red lines, puddles, or whatever you call them. Precisely because in elections it is actually ideological visions that compete, restrictions on democracy within parties are justified. If full democracy existed already within a party, then no coherent proposal could be formed at all, because the result would be roughly the same as in elections — a bit of everything, but nothing coherent and consistent in itself. And then 14 identical proposals with cosmetic differences would run in the elections. "We Change the Rules" enters the elections with the proposal to stop considering the state a pile of crap. The state as such a pile has no obligation to twist itself into a million bends so that every fly has a place to land. The state is not a pile of crap. With the current approach, sooner or later nothing will remain of the pile, and all flies will die or fly away to another pile. This is nothing personal. It is mathematics, it is economics, it is nature. We simply stop believing that the state has an obligation to employ anyone. Or that the state should subsidize all good initiatives. Let's stop living in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union is considered undiluted evil worldwide not because of the mass Russification that occurred there. No. The root of the Soviet Union's evil was ideological. And unfortunately we have not uprooted it from our land and our minds. "We Change the Rules" goes to the elections with the proposal to return politics to politics. Vote for our proposal, for my ability to stand up in the name of ideas against the fiercest adversaries, to talk to anyone and say what no one wants to hear. My intention is to return the center of gravity of power to the Saeima.

We continue to improve the procurement system in Latvia - a draft regulation has been prepared on my initiative, providing that a single contracting authority or public service provider will be able to purchase software development services in the e-catalogue during a year for an amount not exceeding 140,000 euros.

Parents' location in Russia is at least an instrument of blackmail, given that it is a totalitarian state where anyone can say goodbye to life at any moment when it is convenient for the Kremlin. But here Latvia's state power's cowardice has allowed a candidate to receive half a million from a citizen in Russia. The upcoming elections are about fighting to preserve the obvious, not about Latvia's growth. Four years wasted - the foundations are not in order.

JV™ "In contrast to other persons who, after the card index was made public, explained the circumstances of how their surnames could have ended up in the KGB bags, or proved in court that they nevertheless did not cooperate with the KGB (for example, director Dzintra Geka), Dace Korna has never publicly tried to explain or deny her presence in the 'Cheka bag'."

US Bankruptcy Court approves start of 'airBaltic' financial obligations restructuring

🤦🏻‍♂️ Ainārs Šlesers compared Latvia to a small, angry dog that nobody listens to. That is exactly the picture Kremlin propaganda has been painting for years. 🤷🏻‍♂️ In an interview with the news agency LETA, Šlesers stated that Latvia should stop yapping, because, in his opinion, no one listens to Latvia's voice at the international level. Moreover, the party “Latvia First” official account also published a fragment of this interview, adding a picture of an angry little dog. Judging by everything, that is exactly how, according to the oligarch, Latvia looks on the international arena. ❗️ By the way, due to a strange coincidence, Kremlin propaganda also compares Latvia to a small dog, and it is precisely with such images that news about our country is illustrated. Regarding this oligarch's statement, several questions immediately arise. 1️⃣ First, is Latvia first place or is Latvia a dog that decides nothing? In my opinion, this should be clarified. Otherwise, we get mutually exclusive claims. 2️⃣ Second, does Šlesers remember who first warned many years ago that Russia was aggressively rebuilding its empire? Many Latvian diplomats were seen as paranoid and marginal, Latvians were accused of having historical claims against Russia that supposedly prevented normal relations with Moscow. 🫣 No one believed the Baltic states, and many partners, let's face it, even openly sneered. Well, and who was ultimately right? 3️⃣ And finally, third. Kremlin propaganda tried to drive exactly this narrative into the heads of Baltic residents — that we decide nothing, that we should not defend ourselves in a firm manner, and that ultimately we should not resist. 🤯 They effectively replace the excellent National Guard slogan “My Latvia — my responsibility” with the narrative: “Stay in your places, we will stay in ours, just behave quietly.” 🇫🇮 Instead of the example of Finland's determination (in the middle of the last century), we are offered the actions of peoples enslaved by Russia, full of passivity and lack of initiative. ❌ Do not loudly defend your rights, do not argue with the big European countries or suggest anything to them. 😳 Those countries mentioned by Šlesers have never been occupied by the Kremlin, and they do not have this sad but, for our times, very valuable experience. ⚠️ The Baltic states unfortunately have such experience, and that is why we have the right to share it with strategic partners. 🍒 Well, and the cherry on top. According to Šlesers, restoring cooperation with Russia will be possible after the war ends. That means Ainārs is ready to voluntarily put on Latvia the Kremlin's economic shackles and sees no problem in it in the long term. 👛 Probably these gentlemen's first place is not Latvia, but their wallet. And not the state wallet, i.e., the state treasury, but their own wallets. ❓ But what do you think — should Latvia close itself off and remain silent, or, on the contrary, defend its national interests even louder? #vēlēšanas #Šlesers #propaganda #kremlis #okupācija

👍✊ @partijaMMN https://t.co/URp2WbbN55

Boycott for the imported immigrants! Rostovskis could better take care of the quality of Turība education, so that Europeans come instead of Indian students. Meanwhile, Bite could modernize its prehistoric technology, so that cheap Central Asian labor wouldn't have to be imported. Or at least pay local people normal wages.

Minister: Heat energy tariffs this heating season could be on average 5-15% higher than last year.

Heating will become more expensive this season – Vitenbergs names the expected tariff increase