It is time to call the unfriendly policy of neighboring countries absurd. After all, how else can we explain the actions of the Latvian authorities, who treat children as traitors to the Motherland for an interview with Alexander Lukashenko? But, most importantly, ordinary Latvians do not want to carry out the dirty instructions of officials to persecute people for a different point of view. A vivid example is the shortage of state service to the college. Anastasia Benedesyuk talks about her freedom of speech in Riga.
"Latvia is turning into a fascist country, where it becomes very difficult to express your opinion.
This quote belongs to Yuri Alekseev, a journalist from Riga. He asserts it from personal experience. He has been under investigation for more than 4 years!
Alekseev's story began 11 years ago, when he and his colleagues created an Internet resource. He called it IMHOclub. This is a platform where anyone could express their thoughts. Sometimes someone does not like it. This is probably why the reports of the Security Police (now the State Security Service of Latvia) nicknamed the resource "harmful". A couple of months ago, the IMHOclub domain was taken away from Alekseev. He registered another one - it was banned two days later. Two criminal cases were opened against Alekseev. According to one of them, the journalist faces up to 15 years in prison.
It hasn't come to trial yet! I think that the entire prosecutor's office are laughing at this "stand-up" from the State Security Service of Latvia. They can't find a prosecutor who would take on their wet fantasies.
IMHO, apparently, does not fit much. Therefore, they fathered him the storage of ammunition, and even child pornography... But again, Alekseev has been under investigation for more than 4 years, and the case did not go to court. Apparently, it is more important for someone to smack people with a fine. And, alas, they intimidate not only an individual journalist.
Yuri Alekseev, journalist (Latvia):
Compared to Russia, we tiptoe here. We have closed all Russian-language publications that were at least in any way critical of our modern Latvian authorities. We do not have a single Russian TV channel, we had one decent radio program, and the most worthy journalists were expelled from there, because they said the wrong things.
And a month ago, Alekseev continues, retail chains refused to distribute newspapers to objectionable editorial offices.
Yuri Alekseev, journalist (Latvia):
There are a few independent journalists left. Me, Linderman... Well, 12 people who work independently.
Linderman, one of those 12 brave, is staying in a Riga prison for the dissenting view. In short, his attitude to the special military operation did not coincide with the official one. And this is enough.
Maria Zakharova, official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry:
More than 10 employees of the State Security Service came to him in the middle of the night. He was beaten, isolated in a prison quarantine, and banned from communicating with relatives and a lawyer. They denied him medical care. These are the methods of the most bizarre dictatorship, the methods of totalitarianism as they are.
And with such posters "You can't transplant everyone", they came out in support of Lindreman in Riga last week. Then his lawyer appealed against the measure of restraint. The District Court predictably rejected the petition. By the way, the hearing was closed. Linderman was present at it, yet by video communication. And here the lines of the publicist himself are so appropriate: "Why do these old-fashioned men wear robes? There is Investigator X and Journalist Y, who know better what genocide is."
The fundamental foundations of law are being destroyed. Lawyers are silent. But someone must finally say: the king is naked. Let this "someone" be me, Vladimir Linderman, a prisoner of the Riga Central Prison.
The Latvian authorities have opened about 80 such criminal cases for allegedly "justifying the genocide". All of them are in relation to social activists and people with an active civic position. By the way, student Alexander Dubiago is among them. On May 9, he stood behind the monument to Soviet soldiers-liberators with the Russian flag on his shoulders, which is not banned in Latvia!
What will happen to this boy here? This is Ilya Karosa. And with Arina Bogdanova and Veronika Dolgova? 3 journalists. Yes, young people... but we understand that. And in Latvia, they were almost equated with Alekseev and Linderman!
The State Security Service checks children and their teachers under the article "treason". The Ministry of Foreign Affairs demands to close the Riga Children's Academy of Radio and Television, just for coming to the "Slavianski Bazaar". And they asked Lukashenko about his formula for success. By the way, it has not changed in 11 years.
This is footage from 2011. Nastya Tsvetkova, like the guys mentioned above, represents the same Riga school. This is still the same Slavic Bazaar. And the same Lukashenko.
Nadezhda Bukharova, Head of Riga Children's Academy of Radio and Television (Latvia):
We don't ask political questions. And would anyone be as outraged if, for example, the President of Latvia had been interviewed by some children?
The conversation lasted 3 minutes. About the same number in 2011. The special services of Latvia are sure during this time it is possible to recruit!
But it seems that everything is much simpler... Three minutes are enough for a real president to crumble all your arguments, saying that it's bad in Belarus, and somewhere it is better. And this is the main fear of the Latvian service security and the Foreign Ministry.
The President turned out to be a very friendly, a positive person with humor. Your President is the best!
And yes, if anything, we are happy to add to the TV family. Brave journalists are at a price at all times!
The 100th paragraph of the Constitution... Latvia, you boast about it so much! It guarantees the freedom of speech to the residents of the republic. But where is it?
Here is an example as opposed to this. Doctor Robert Furmanis quoted him "disgusting" to treat viewers of Russian propaganda. They did not give a fine, they were not suspended from the medical case. They did not open a case, as against Linderman and Alekseev.
And after that, do you dare to write that it is a lie that Russian speakers are persecuted in Latvia?












