well, my guest today is latvia's prime minister, kristjanis karins. just how vulnerable is latvia?rime minister kristjanis karins, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. vladimir putin's invasion of ukraine happened six months ago. right now, here in latvia, has that war raised the level of fear to new heights? what the war has done has raised the level of mobilisation. so the first effect was the mobilisation from the grassroots, people rallying to the support of ukraine citizens, ordinary people coming together, asking, "what can we do to help ukraine?" and we've had a mass outpouring of... we have communities making camouflage nets, we have people providing medications, companies donating all sorts of vehicles, donating all sorts of humanitarian aid, blankets, you name it, that has been going on. people donating cash — and not very wealthy people, ordinary people. so we've had a massive mobilisation of society, because we here in latvia very well understand that the ukrainians are, in a sense, fighting our war. they are fighting against russian imperialism. right now, it happens to be

no russians to enter latvia?ns, and we only issue on an exceptional basis, i think what you call humanitarian visas. there are some who have received that permit, but the general rule is no visas. the german chancellor scholz says that's a fundamental mistake. he says, "this is not a war on the russian people. "it is putin's war. "it is important for us to understand there are a lot "of people fleeing from russia because they fundamentally disagree "with the russian regime." you really want to lock them out of getting a safe haven in latvia? once again, it's important to distinguish a tourist visa from a humanitarian visa. we are accepting, on an exceptional basis, russian citizens who are indeed fleeing the putin regime. we have, in latvia, we're actually hosting many news services, russian edition, including the bbc�*s, and many others — the former independent russian media, which is banned in moscow, is alive in latvia and reporting back into russia. so, of course, you always find a way to let that which would

what plans does latvia have for ukrainian grain? let's listen. we are very concerned about everything that happens in the war, this is the war of russian colonialism, we know what it is, because we were colonized by russia, the baltic countries and poland were also colonized by russia, the problem that one cannot count on grain exports from ukraine directly through belarus, because belarus. is now under very strong influence from moscow. we have the physical capabilities and, of course , the political will to open our ports for the export of ukrainian grain. if this is possible to implement, then poland plays a key role here. the fact is that we do not have a land border with ukraine, but if you look at the map, you will see that our land borders are with russia, belarus and lithuania. lithuania borders belarus. grain can be exported via the baltic countries, it will be more expensive, but it can be exported, besides, as it seems to me, if anyone is creating difficulties in the black sea, it is russia, concern should be shown in europe, because i

do not make such statements just like that. military aid to latvia in ukraine in latvia supported thevision of necessary weapons to ukraine from allied countries without restrictions, the head of the ministry of foreign affairs of latvia , edgars linkevich, said that our country, that is, where ukraine should not limit the use of weapons since the weapons are being used to protect against the aggressor , he told the agency, it is not such a market. rita avize. maybe i'm wrong, i'm wrong. i don't read latvian. the minister emphasized that there will be discussions now not about providing ukraine with long-range artillery systems of tanks and an even more effective air defense system, and until then, discussions between nato are ongoing and allied countries and the head of the foreign ministry said that some countries are worried that ukraine will use weapons to break through the territory of russia to protect themselves from the destruction of their energy system. my opinion is that we should give the ukrainians weapons, there is no need to limit their use of these weapons if the goal

among the residents of latvia, mr.ous not only for his american citizenship, but also for his financial status, this foundation was laid by his grandfather, vilhelm narinzh. he owned a fish shop in the central market of the region. vilhelm invested the money he earned from trading lassassina in shares of the newly emerging but very promising film distribution company atrium and became a co-owner of the peo nigeris cinema, but at the end of the second world war in 1944, narenzh and his family left for sweden, where his daughter, cree's mother. the girl met the same uldis karinsh, who fled from the offensive of the red army, and married him; from sweden, both families moved to the usa, where the future head of the latvian foreign ministry was born in 1964, studied at a provincial school, where he and his sister were the only latvians, but in dellovere's latvian society, where his parents were activists, there were many of these. we demonstrated in philadelphia at the liberty bell against the occupation of the baltic coun

what is latvia like today? has anyone thought? if not, then short ligbes is a small state in northern europe, after joining the eu and nato in 2004, it was completely deprived of independence with a killed industry. today , just over half a million people live in the country, the population is aging, the birth rate is low, and the working-age part of it is leaving for countries with a higher standard of living, but they have also begun to expel russians. latvia makes money only in the service sector, sprats and riga balsam, but they now sell sprats also according to quotas. aizh balsam is interesting only people from the post-soviet space, because they remember latvia with the russian language, nordic character and friendly. but today it’s different. and i’m aksenia lebedeva with you. hello. if the economy is at zero, you need to feed people an idea, the more toxic it is, the fewer questions there will be, nothing is clear in principle, but it’s very interesting, latvia today, renouncing everything russian, is not moving to nation

uh, well, in general, here i am a citizen of latvia and , uh, latvia in recent years.ll recent years, in fact, in the information space, including in the west in the western media, it is present here on march 16 on the day of the latvian legion, and those latvians and latvians who fought on the side of the soviet union, they were in the shadow. and somehow i wanted to make up for it. this one, uh, struck this one, yes, and i, frankly, for a long time conceived this film, but started shooting about three years ago and hmm, i recorded four voluminous interviews with veterans. but not a single frame was included in the film, because events in the twenty-second year simply began to develop. so it was necessary to follow the events. and those plans that were originally they. well, to put it mildly, collapsed. it was necessary to go for life, so that the film was an actual reality. weaker desire, how did it happen to collect like that? that's it. here are the unique footage of the destruction of monuments. e you somewhere they took it in the archive, they themselves went out

latvia named labor educational camp.is complicity in the crime, many political scientists are sure that in the very near future latvia will be filled. nyat nazis, and recently noticed a close friendship faces zelensky what their puppeteers have in mind? what plan are they trying to implement the details right after the commercial. we 're helping to bring back normal life in iraq. you 're helping a military dictator get what he wants, bioweapon feedstock. we agreed, you know? the rest don't care, but they will vote, as america means, i need to convince the american representative. i’ll try to help you with this trader watch the premiere of a serial film after the time program cashback up to 70 percent have issued any tinkoff card participates cashback peste from may 15 to may 28, the vtb team will quickly register a business, report. use this promo code and so on. see how to solve questions, videos, powerful smartphones and stylish tablets at attractive prices. get yours already. tinkoff cash loan to card immediately defe

in more than latvia the x. parties and was declared an enemy and spent almost two years behind bars for taking part in the killing of local volunteers they were helping the germans. kannan of was acting on of the situation taken by parties and tribunals in one nine hundred forty three. when radical nationalists came to power after the regime change and their lackeys started a massive campaign against anti-fascists riegel who had fought in the entire hitler coalition they were all to review the old can of the edition in order to whitewash naziism and fascism really for she is a. ivers garder is leader of a political organization called the national front of latvia the front publishes a newspaper founded by him. better weekends and during public holidays volunteers hand out free copies to anyone willing to read the paper. its name contains three d's they stand for de occupation the colonized station and the russification. for a long time talk to god are taught ethics at the academy of culture some of his former s

, yeah, in public administration in latvia 63,400 people work in latvia, great, such a huge state, withy branch, he’s an excellent person, very honest. mazovka, comrade mazovka, and it was a wild surprise for me that in the mingur executive committee people work for free, that is, he says, well, it’s like, well , it’s considered a social burden, it’s not work, it’s a serious load, but it’s not paid, but it’s not is paid, but i seriously doubt that if in latvia you tell deputies that guys, you work for the good of society, but for free, yes, they will all run. but i cannot join the party yet, since i am not a citizen of the republic of belarus, i am not a citizen of the russian federation, but there is an opportunity, there was an opportunity to join a public organization, and there i mostly do propaganda, we go to different places in general organizations and tell them that life is a little different, life is there as we are told. what should we look up to, as if we should, i say that not everything is so simple, and there are problems, these problems i describe it, and it is much easie

now that loses latvia's president duggan off is a member of latvia's anti fascist committee. who is most of us are going to get the book i can't bear to see the revival naziism unluckier says i can see it with the naked eye. upsets me most of all is that so-called democratic europe closes its eyes to the revival not as a group as ago it was a. march sixteenth one thousand nine hundred forty three during the second world war the latvian legion was formed. thousands of volunteers in the country signed up to fight for the nazis. off to independence every year on the state legion veterans have been officially committees to hold a parade in central riga. in two thousand and five big to durgan off and several other anti fascists clad in prison right stood in the way of marching legionaries. the police dispersed all the anti-fascists and let the s.s. veterans put the flowers at the freedom monument. for the. we believe in a free country fascists and their followers have no right to bring flowers to a symbol of the state if the state doesn't see itself as a nationalist but. all floor

uh, well, in general, here i am a citizen of latvia and , uh, latvia in recent years. all recent years in fact, in the information space , including the western one in the western media, it is present here on march 16 on the day of the latvian legion, and those latvians and latvians who fought on the side of the soviet union, they were in the shadows. and somehow i wanted to make up for it. this one, uh, struck this one, yes, and i, frankly, have long conceived this film, but three years ago i started shooting and i had four recorded. clever interviews with veterans, but not a single frame was included in the film, because the events in the twenty-second year simply became develop. so it was necessary to follow the events. and those plans that were originally they. well, to put it mildly, collapsed. it was necessary to go for life in order for the film to be relevant. how did you manage to put it together? that's it, these unique shots of the destruction of monuments, and you took somewhere in the archive yourself and went to shoot on some or they provide you somewhere

day latvia and nazi germany. during the second of that. they must go. but they must leave out the. bottom up and i. think they would like to say it's national. the languages of the things they were thinking that they had to. speak latvian things about the rights and not feel if you're not a citizen and culture some of the six of the tropes in the coalition of things where you are discriminated against because you're in pure. theory alex saves mother is latvian but his father is russian he has a perfect command of both languages. he received an excellent education both as an engineer and as a journalist his son is a school people. papa you tell me what the sentence means. is often it's a loss when he tries to figure out his math textbook it's written in latvian. the internet translator says it means headline well yes that's a possibility. a country schools were formed in the middle of the past decade. russian take spokes were hastily replaced with latvian ones. now more than half of the subjects in russian languag

light, he will win latvia a victory in ukraine.hank you dear, after february 24, representatives of the latvian nation began to declare that russia’s aggression against ukraine has opened a historical window of opportunity to deal with the occupation monuments at home. official latvia is for bandera's ukraine and against the ukraine that is somehow connected with russia at the end of february, all relations were interrupted rhetoric. naturally, the rhetoric on the head of the riga duma has changed; they have also changed, concluded in the ninety-fourth year, the russian-latvian treaty did not allow the demolition of soviet monuments. their damage, desecration were considered a violation of law 24 on the night of 24-25, firstly, a man with a hammer appeared, who developed this stella and then at night he would still be doused with paint. we arrived in the morning. we started cleaning. we realized that this could all happen again and we organized the night watch. a series of acts of vandalism began, an unequal struggle of those who w

it's now been twenty years since latvia jeev sovereignty. but still independence day its most celebrated holiday and the freedom monument its main national icon aliant to hoffer of the country's population.

once again i want to emphasize that latvia is clearly aware of who we are dealing with and latvia understands that a full set of restrictive measures is needed in addition to military aid, which latvia receives one of the largest aids from latvia countries that have a certain budget, of course, other large countries help uh, actually more, but if you take the budget , the number of population, etc., then latvia, estonia and other baltic countries, they are the leaders of our aid to us, but recently latvia gave us six uh artillery installations and four helicopters, we understand that just to remind mr. oleksandr, latvia is not just for us, it really helps us on a large scale according to its gdp, for example . whining, no matter how it sounds, about the fact that we ourselves are exposing our defense capabilities in order to help ukraine , unfortunately, other countries also sometimes use their rhetoric, oleksandr i would like to clarify in a few more moments, if we understand the situation with tourist visas, then actually in latvia there are principles according to which temporary residence

but why is it so important for the people of latvia ? we see in this trend a bad trend these war crimes have not appeared right now and exactly in ukraine ukraine ah there were before in ukraine war crimes were committed for the sole reason that they were not stopped earlier that the war criminals did not answer for this in any way before , neither in georgia nor in fact in 2014 after the struggle in donbas and in crimea." part of the race, it can spread everywhere, if you, its criminals, do not see the consequences, then all this will go on and continue to grow, and we must stop it with all our might. there is simply no other way out. in fact, i believe that the criminals are those who are involved in the committed war crimes, i believe. i am even convinced that they will appear before the court and be punished it will be a little more difficult for the political leaders, those who ordered to do it with them will be a little more difficult , this does not mean that we should surrender. but why then some countries? countries, their gover

missy: let's talk about latvia. how many nato forces are present in latvia? and are you satisfied with nato's military presence in the baltic nations specifically, given their geography and history as soviet republics? pres. levits: we have nato military personnel from 10 other nations, 10 other nato nations here, and several from other nato states, and our own military forces. for the moment, it is enough. but because of the change of the strategic situation in europe, we need more troops. and we need to strengthen the eastern flank of nato. and of course, that mia is part of the eastern flank, and we will prepare our proposals so that we have more emphasis to defend, the common defense, and for the deployment of nato troops in our baltic region and in general, eastern part of europe. missy: it is interesting to see nato leadership make these decisions following president putin's invasion of ukraine, that many countries in eastern europe have in calling for four years. we know baltic nations have warned the west for a long time about the threat of russia and

do not care about latvia, they absolutely do not have latvia in their personal strategy of europe toe not patriots, then understandable. why is the statement, of course, an ideal picture, if he was a latvian gay and black, he is all the european commissioner, i immediately looked at the footage. listen, he's changed a lot, he's broken. during this time he was not so he was a normal young man. here, here, here, especially when he is walking, then you can really see it, this one, this one, he was also walking behind the podium. he really has his head up. here, here, here, you can see, yes, that is, here are h-colleagues. and what does that mean for him broke? he rather broke himself from himself in order to fit the circumstances, firstly, about being broken, but he is not in any conditions, he is a slider to be broken, so that this is such a serious experiment. where is the deprivation of liberty of some will. that is , this is a normal model of his adaptation of the adjustment, but here it is good. it is seen. right here, when he walks, first, there you can see how he picks up a step.

they receive it while they are in latvia.hough they can also legally stay in latvia for three months with valid documents even without registration, so i can’t say the exact number, but it’s definitely more than 20 thousand more than 14 thousand received a work permit in latvia ukraine they live mostly in host families or in some specially prepared premises for this purpose. they live in families, but the municipal authorities of many cities and villages also provide housing , for example, they give away various school premises and other social infrastructure buildings are also used for housing refugees or temporarily of displaced persons, latvia was one of the first countries that provided us with military assistance, you gave us your own stinger anti-aircraft systems, which helped a lot during the defense of kyiv, i am defective do you still continue to provide us with military aid i can answer yes but without any details although military aid military equipment continues to arrive in ukraine that is why my answer is yes th

there are many ukrainians in latvia now. you know the exact number. how many numbers are constantly changing. the latest number, which is more or less stable, is about 40,000 ukrainians who were registered or who applied for help to both national and local authorities. authorities, but you know. we also see that there is a constant stream of ukrainians crossing the latvian-russian border, those who are trying to escape through russia and from the occupied territories as well we see that some ukrainians are returning to ukraine , now some are using latvia as a transit country, that is, in fact, the figure that we can call more or less stable is 40 thousand. but do you know about the number of ukrainians who are starting to come to latvia ? it was a bit of a mystery because we saw several hundred citizens of ukraine crossing the border between latvia and russia in the summer and in september. now, for some reason, this flow has stopped and we have a suspicion that it is somehow related to the internal border management of russia and possibly also with t

present day latvia and nazi germany. but also. during the second world war and of the second. they must go. there was a diversion but there must be rather than one mockery for. some things they would like to say is nationalistic not be the languages of the slaves or of the truths they had to. speak latvian the things about tents and rights and not if you're not a citizen. of the drops and the culmination of things where you are discriminated against because your impure. duty alex sanz the mother is latvian but his father is russian he has a perfect command of both languages he received an excellent education both as an engineer and as a journalist his son is a school people. papa tell me what percent and smeared. is often at the loss when he tries to figure out his math textbook it's written in latvia and. the internet translator says it needs headline well yes that's a possibility. a country schools were formed in the middle of the past decade. russian textbooks were hastily replaced with latvian ones. now more than hal

in latvia began ukraine information space and environment.block colors began to dominate in cities and towns on the radio sounded news releases on the ukrainian model everywhere ukrainian flags from the cabinet of ministers and the ministry of foreign affairs to schools, hospitals , electronic screens, banners, websites. the media of private companies are even painting trams yellow-blocked; atm screens are calling to help ukrainian residents with supplies to ukraine . latvia indeed, everything in the world will come out on top with its military budget. this, of course, is not so much out of love for ukraine and ukrainians. how many because of hostility to russia for ukraine and against putin leads the president himself is an ehillelite in latvia, he is the most significant official categorically, advocating the ousting of the russian language later in an interview. he will also speak in the spirit that the russian-speaking celebrating victory day should be sorted out and isolated. the rally russian voice against the war was given the most pre

what can latvia do to help, first of all, it really helps.ain, uh, all the challenges we had, from defense, deficits to the result of terrible attacks on the power system, i.e. different energies , something and everything. this is really us as much as possible. we see what is happening, it is happening all the time, we always know, somehow we start from ourselves , then we start all the others, and here we are grateful for the advocacy of our baltic friends, it is true, latvia, lithuania, estonia, and also poland, these the states always support the maximum in the european union , everything that we see, we work. with some sanction steps, compromises, this makes a quick victory impossible, because the military infrastructure in the russian federation depends on it, we must do everything to give them the opportunity to produce the amount of these weapons with which they they came to us and they can still come, but the soviets are acting, it is important to press it is important to press partners both in europe and the whole world, this is whe

, too, latvia is preparing airfields where nato landings can be received. and latvia is preparing, well, all the infrastructure that is needed, well, to, to, our allies had the opportunity to help us, and they are also preparing weapons, the armed forces of latvia are also preparing. before that, and for example , once in more peaceful times, the latvian army was, well, it operated on a contract basis, and now, now latvia has resumed conscription, that is, that is... eh, young guys of the appropriate age should train eh, so that eh if we were able to resist russian aggression, we understand that this is exactly what should be happening now in all countries that understand that russia is a threat. quite real, we also know that events are taking place in latvia on a slightly different level, the process of deportation of almost 1,000 citizens of the russian federation has begun, who do not comply with immigration legislation, do not fulfill the requirements set out in the law, and of course that in russia is very indignant about this, how come, please tell me a little more, this is such a

today these people are attracted to responsibility alexander dublyaga is a citizen of latvia.he studies at one of moscow colleges and plans to continue his higher education in our homeland. we have already contacted his mother, svetlana, and we will provide legal and diplomatic assistance in this situation. once again i want to remind you that he is a citizen of latvia in this sense, our capabilities. they are severely limited. and you can literally say in a nutshell what he is now accused of, how formalized it is, so to speak, an offense. well, it sounds terrible, of course, this is the article of the local criminal code 74/1, which is called justifying genocide, a crime against humanity and justifying military action. it is clear, but i understand that our ability to help him is limited, however. we paid great attention to your words, so to speak, that we are russia, you are the ambassador and our embassy is going to provide him with all possible help, thank god and thank you for this, but please tell me, as a diplomat on michal valentinovich , here, while i'm trying to unde

missy: let's talk about latvia specifically. how many nato forces are present in latvia? are you satisfied with nato's military presence in the baltic nations, specifically given their geography and their history with soviet republic? president levits: we have nato military personnel from 10 other nations. 10 other nato nations here. and we have several thousand from others, nato member states, and we have also of course our own military forces. so that's for the moment it is enough. but because of a change of the strategic situation in europe, we need more troops and we need to strengthen all eastern flank of nato and of course latvia is part of the eastern flank. and we will prepare our proposals so that we have more emphasis to defend fence, and -- defense, and of course for the employment of -- deployment of nato troops in our region. baltic region, but in general in the eastern part of europe. missy: it's interesting to see nato's leadership make these decisions following president putin's invasion of ukraine that many countries in eastern europe have been calling fo

but anyway, no, in latvia and l lithuania also. we will work on that. at the same time we are looking for more, more reasonable nato partners' presence in the region because we saw from different military games that organized by very prominent institutions here in the u.s. that we really need to strengthen the presence of nato forces. in the region. not only by number of soldiers on our land, ground, but also by increasing prepositions of the different equipment and ammunition in the region. because in our case, if you speak about possible aggression, the most important issue is time of response. and if we want to shorten this time, we really need higher presence of nato forces in the region and also prepositioning of equipment, technique, ammunition in the region. it will be more shorter, because if we just u.s. decides to help and we are sure you will decide. but anyway, we need many days to transport equipment to europe. it means we need to find solutions. and also will be one of the questions what we will discuss probably during the next nato summit