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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

today latvia is a target of russian disinformation. attempt to distort reality here by spreading fake news to sow doubt, confusion. russia's objective, to discredit a new european democracy on its border. and here is one example of what appears to be russian disinformation. this website is called baltnews. it is in russian, it is aimed at ethnic russians across the baltic but it is part of a news organisation which is bankrolled by the kremlin. what kind of stories does it put out? here is one. listen to this. among latvians, it says, adolf hitler is more popular than harry potter. hitler's mein kampf tops readers‘ book choice in latvia. astonishing. so the impression you get when you read this is that in latvia in an eu country nazi ideology is thriving. and this story was picked up and republished by a whole string of other news sites. but is it really true? i'm off to investigate. my first stop is latvia's largest book—seller. harry is here. but i can't find hitler. perhaps the company director can help me. how many copies of mein k

well, latvia... we are talking about the americans.sh, the french and, of course, the germans, who won't even give their taurus long—range missiles to the ukrainians. but those key countries, as yet, have not lifted constraints upon use of their long—range missiles. well... what do you say to the ukrainians when they say, "we have to get this authorisation"? absolutely, what we say to ukrainians is, first of all, not only say we supply ukrainians with equipment and also with drones, which have reach as well. at the same time, of course, what we say that we will do all our best also to convince our partners, to advocate that exactly — that all weaponry, all equipment could and should be used also against aggressor country and territory in self—defence of ukraine. and on that basis, minister, i have to be frank with you — you are failing. your persuasive efforts are not working with your allies, in particular the americans. why not? no, i don't think so that we are failing. of course, it's a continuous process. we have to take into accou

now zach loses latvia's president the north is a member of latvia's anti fascist committee. yours was one of those really did well i can't bear to see the revival of naziism in libya 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 of naziism europe as a kind word was. on march sixteenth nineteen forty three during the second world war the laugh-in legion was formed. thousands of volunteers in the country signed up to fight for the nazis. off independence every year on this date legion veterans have been officially committed to hold a parade in central riga. in two thousand and five victor jurgen often several other anti fascist clans and prison rape stood in the way of marching legion and. the police dispersed all the empty fascists and let the s.s. veterans put the flowers at the freedom monument. crosses the u. 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. floor actions were in line

that's announcer i think since latvia is a member of nato since life is a member of european union i would say we haven't any fear from nobody well of course we have to. have fears from economic challenges from new international threats like international terrorism but well that's a challenge. facing any any country including like you you're mentioning the economic challenges was well as a member of nato ally that is for as i understand spence spent quite a considerable sum on defense well this reset let's call it in russia latin relations that we are seeing today do you think it may convince the let me leadership to scrap some costly defense programs i wouldn't link link reset policy and our defense spending have been cut quite substantially in the last two years. due to economic constraints. but we are still. lacking to have two percent military or defense expenditures of g.d.p. so we are spending less and that's a commitment of nato states so i think this is not claimed to. have a reset is not linked to the level of military expenditures in latvia and we have to holler our. commit

aah. riga capital city of the republic of latvia. the country gained independence on march the 16th. now, thousands of people have gathered in the city center near the free to monument ever since. and how does the democratic olympia celebrate? every spring? the country has now been a member of both the european union and nato for several years. the nell very few surviving legionnaires who served in latvian buffet s s divisions, march solemnly under national flags and making their way to the country's main monument. there accompanied by a large crowd of loyal supporters and admirers to the strains of nazi style marches, and songs in number of officials and individuals lay memorial weeks at the base of the monument. as they joined the commemoration of remembrance day. it's a day when respect to paid to fallen and surviving volunteers for hitler's ass. there was a time when this was even considered a national holiday soon. austin was all po, dosage of thought, all god to jane, both full of korean, the death. but rich and good, then 5 to

but the price of building materials in latvia has gone up by half. and he doesn't know when it will be finished. the rosenthal is live in a small village in western latvia, set in beautiful countryside. youngest takes the children to school each morning and brings them home again later. but all is not as idyllic as it seems with a population of just to 1000000 latvia is one of the poorest countries in the european union. it's economy traditionally closely linked to russia's. the war has had a disastrous impact on business owners like yon us, m. o 's board, we've always worked closely with business partners in russia and people there always wanted our products back now that's all gone in. got such a sad way. so me anees about lat fears. big neighbor to the east has risen sharply since the start of the war. latvia declared independence from the soviet union more than 30 years ago. but the invasion of ukraine has brought back traumatic memories . he, this the hud via apple car. it feels like the apocalypse, say with him, please him to know if you wake u

well, my guest is latvia's defence minister, andris spruds.h the stakes rising, what can ukraine expect from its friends? andris spruds, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. it is a pleasure to have you. now you are defence minister in a baltic nation, which is one of ukraine's strongest supporters inside the eu and nato. so what do you make of ukraine's risky gambit, this offensive inside russian territory? it was just recently in ukraine, and what i see in ukraine, it's a resolve. it's a determination. it's a resilience. it's a willingness also to take initiative. and what we've seen right now is that ukraine is in a position to take this initiative, that it shows also that the war, of course, is a war of wills, the war of the mindsets. and here, we can see that ukraine also shows and proves that russia has its vulnerabilities. but did you, in kyiv, also get a sense of deep ukrainian frustration with its allies? because it's become clear in the last couple of weeks that ukraine didn't feel able to share any information about this su

latvia and russia this is an issue between latvia and poland this is an issue of russia's own history and i think that is the same show to bring all knowledge about. tragic complex difficult issues of twentieth century and we have to start it. i think a good start is a hope of the victory we shouldn't try to reach immediately some finish but we have to stop and what's essential we have to start both and we have to start to cover this first step was done today i hope very much it will be successful you're absolutely both moscow and riga have already labeled this visit as successful well as far as i know you are yuruk coming to minister latin economist or he was coming to moscow in order to try to convince gazprom to cut the gas prices for latvia was this attempt successful. well. i should say that was no not the only issue of of for. minister of economy and a number of ministers who. came with the president to moscow we have signed a number of four agreements by a bilateral agreements. i should mention first and foremost the agreement in some double taxation agreement on our cooperatio

what do you make of that given, you know, especially the history of latvia and latvia's positions in eastern europe? president levits: so latvia and all other member states of nato, which joined nato after 1990 as democratic states. it was their choice. of course, the principle of independence and self-determination says it is for the state to choose alliance. the whole world knows that nato is a defensive alliance. no one in nato is thinking to expand and to make war against another country. so it was increase of security, increase of peace in europe through ak session -- accession of member states since 1990. i will say if it would not be done, then we would have much more worse situation as now. >> i think the elephant in the room when we're talking about eastern europe and the baltics in particular in this conversation about raesh's intentions, vis-a-vis nato, is the possibility that president putin could decide to widen the war, potentially launch a direct attack on nato nations? and you referenced earlier, latvia's feeling of security. i'm hoping you can elaborate on that. what