Let no one out: Latvia lowers the Iron Curtain
According to the Latvian State Security Service, about 2,000 residents of this Baltic republic cross the border with Russia every month. The flow of Latvian tourists to Belarus is even more active - on average about 5 thousand trips per month. The Latvian Foreign Ministry and special services constantly state that Latvians in these two neighboring countries face detention, prison and other horrors. However, people do not refuse to travel. And so the Latvian Parliament has begun to discuss the next step - they want to ban travel to Russia and Belarus altogether. Details - in the material "Izvestia.
The call of Belarusian dentistry
In 2024, residents of Latvia traveled to Russia twice as often as in the previous year. Travel to Belarus has remained at a high level in recent years - thanks to the visa-free regime introduced in 2022 by President Alexander Lukashenko for residents of neighboring EU countries. Minsk is pleased that the visiting Baltics contribute to the maintenance of the Belarusian tourism industry. But such trips are very useful for the residents of the Baltic States themselves. Head of the Riga tour company Rigatur Piotr Boiko says that people are interested not only in Belarusian sights, but also in medicine. "They go to get their teeth done - it's two or three times cheaper there than in Latvia. Means of communication allow to solve many issues remotely. For example, to send the same casts, to prepare everything. And then they come there for two or three days, and everything is installed - fillings, bridges.... Most often they drive their own cars," Boyko says.
According to Latvian statistics, last year every eighth resident (12% of the population) of Latvia did not visit a dentist. Moreover, 10% have not gone to the dentist for more than a year. Many of these people admit that they cannot afford dental services because of the high cost of services. Moreover, prices have increased in recent years - ten years ago, dentistry in Latvia was so cheap that other EU residents traveled here en masse for dental treatment. However, now the republic has "caught up with civilized Europe" on this indicator. Therefore, Belarusian dentists have become a good way out for the Latvians.
In recent years, the Latvian authorities have regularly appealed to their population to refuse to travel to Russia and Belarus. The other day in the Latvian city of Daugavpils the premiere of the anti-Belarusian movie "Where is the border?" took place. Why Daugavpils? This city is only 30 kilometers from the border with Belarus. Many residents of Daugavpils are ethnic Belarusians, they are connected with the neighboring state by both family and friendly ties.
The author of the movie, Vladislava Romanova, is a native of Daugavpils, an ethnic Russian who has publicly lamented her ethnicity. She said that she considers herself Latvian and that she is very angry at the "Latvian vata". Romanova, who never went to Belarus herself, presented the neighboring country in her film as a kingdom of darkness and oppression, for which she attracted "experts" - "zmagars" who had fled to Latvia.
The citizens, interviewed by Romanova on the streets of Daugavpils, have a different opinion: they don't believe in the horrors of "Lukashenko's regime," they say that people in Belarus look happy and that the prices in Belarusian stores are very pleasant. This makes the propagandists furious. By the way, the free screening of Romanova's movie in Daugavpils was attended by only a few viewers.
A radical solution is needed
Since neither threats nor persuasions work, the Latvian Seimas has started discussing a bill to ban local travel agencies from organizing trips to Russia and Belarus. "Travel to Russia and Belarus is currently a security issue that creates problems both for the tourists themselves and for our services. We cannot allow tour operators to continue organizing entertainment trips and our citizens to be taken by buses to countries that are not shy about declaring their desire to occupy Latvia," said Gatis Liepinsh, an MP from the New Unity coalition party.
The emergence of the bill has worried representatives of Latvia's Russian-speaking community and opposition Russian politicians. "Apparently, the authorities are afraid that the people will see a different picture of the world. Well, we wait for the next step - the construction of a wall around Latvia. In the meantime, we can admire the new bans. I think people will rush to Belarus now, "before it starts". Good boots, we should take them," said Inna Dieri, member of the Riga City Council.
Fence built by the Latvian side at the junction of the borders of Belarus, Russia and Latvia
February 18, Latvian Seimas Commission on National Economy, Agrarian, Environmental and Regional Policy supported the ban on the supply of tourist services related to trips to Russia and Belarus. MP Janis Patmalnieks explained that "the amendments are aimed both at reducing the risks of possible violations of the rights of Latvian citizens and at preventing their recruitment." Patmalnieks noted that this is only "the first step" and that "perhaps afterwards, not only organized tourist trips should be stopped, but also the flow of people to the border in general." A similar opinion was expressed by representatives of the Ministry of Economy, who were present at the commission meeting - in their opinion, it is worth thinking about "restricting passenger carriers as well".
Representative of the Latvian Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators Kitija Tigule said that at the moment no operator offers trips to Russia, but three or four companies organize tours to Belarus. Tigule explained that of all Latvian residents traveling to Belarus, only less than 10% go there on tours and that none of these people have been detained there. Tigule noted that "limiting such trips will not solve the problem in principle, and that it's necessary to limit the movement of those who travel to Belarus by regular transport. In turn, representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that they were already negotiating with the Ministry of Transport on the possibility of restricting passenger transportation in Russia and Belarus.
MP Andris Kulbergs expressed bewilderment: why are the deputies "fiddling with tourist trips," instead of "solving the problem" by stopping rail and land traffic and closing the borders? The parliament says it is possible that the ban will not be 100 percent and will introduce some exceptions that will be considered a good reason to travel. There could be further discussions on what exactly those exceptions might be: visiting relatives, for example, or the need to attend the funeral of someone in the family. But all of this is still a matter of debate.
Multiplication of the "disloyal"
It should be noted that already now Latvian authorities want to know everything about the trips of their residents outside the EU. For example, it has recently become known that the administration of the country's largest medical institution, Riga's Stradiņa Hospital, obliges its employees to report on trips to any non-EU and non-NATO countries. They have to report in detail on whom they had contact with in these countries - name, surname, age, occupation, circumstances of acquaintance and the time when it took place, type and nature of contact (face-to-face, e-mail, telephone), etc. The hospital shall support its order with a corresponding request from the State Security Service.
Paul Stradynia Hospital
Apparently, similar rules have been introduced in other state institutions. Parents of schoolchildren testify that educational institutions are also interested in their students' trips abroad. "In the fall, when helping to write a story about summer vacation in Latvian, I teach my children to lie: "We were by the sea". Sometimes the teacher persistently asks: "Were you flying by airplane, where did you live?" Formulated the answer: "This is a family matter." Once there was a questionnaire at a geography lesson: in which countries have you been? We wrote: in different countries," says one of the moms.
Political scientist Andrei Starikov, editor-in-chief of the Baltnews.com portal, told Izvestia that the trips of Latvians to Russia and Belarus bring down the propaganda picture carefully constructed by the officialdom. "Propaganda claims that sanctions are in effect, that stores in Russia and Belarus have empty shelves, that the population there suffers from a terrible shortage of everyday goods, that the infrastructure in these two countries is degrading, that at every step you can be arrested by the KGB and thrown into a dungeon. People who travel to Russia and Belarus and become personally convinced that everything they are told about these two countries is a fairy tale - from the point of view of propaganda, they become "lost", potential "agents of Moscow"," emphasizes Starikov, himself a native of Riga.
Tourists taking photos on Red Square
The propaganda lies become especially blatant when it becomes possible to compare the situation in Russia and Belarus with the situation in Latvia itself. In this Baltic republic, the policy of the authorities has led to economic decline and demographic crisis. Moreover, the further the authorities go, the more they prefer forceful methods - intimidating all dissenters, prosecuting them and throwing them behind bars.
"One simple comparison of the utility bills received by the population in Latvia and Russia may lead Latvians to think that the government has chosen some wrong course - devastating both for the pocket and the refrigerator of the average Latvian. Thus, traveling to Russia and Belarus adds to the number of potentially "disloyal" residents, from the point of view of Latvian authorities. And since such trips have recently become more frequent, the "disloyal" are becoming more and more numerous," Starikov explains the point of view of the Latvian authorities.
In recent years, the authorities have become convinced that the previous measures - reducing the number of border checkpoints, artificially organizing queues at the border, interrogating and intimidating Latvians visiting "hostile countries" - no longer work. In addition, Riga itself has contributed to the growing number of Latvians with Russian relatives. Over the last two years Latvia has expelled more than 10 thousand of its former residents with Russian citizenship - they mostly settled in Russia. And now relatives and friends still living in Latvia are actively visiting them. Some of them are preparing to move themselves. "If all Latvian Russians would get into their cars at the same time, leave Latvia and never contact it again, it would suit Latvian nationalists. But the fact that people are traveling on both sides of the border and actively communicate with each other - no, it doesn't suit them," says the political scientist.
Latvian-Belarusian border
According to the expert, the introduction of visa-free entry by Belarus and very easy-to-issue electronic visas by Russia has become both an asymmetric measure in the fight against unfriendly states and a way to support those residents of these countries who do not agree with their foreign policy. Starikov emphasizes that Latvia has already developed a specific market of carriers - people are taken to the border of Russia and Belarus and beyond, and are helped with shelter and food. "Therefore, from the point of view of the Latvian authorities, a mere ban on tourist travel is not enough, a radical step is necessary - closing the borders. It should be done, of course, together with all Baltic countries - after all, the same Latvians massively enter the Russian Federation through Estonian border checkpoints", - says the political scientist.
He believes that such a significant restriction of the human right to freedom of movement would require a special justification - for example, the imposition of martial law. In Starikov's opinion, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia will not dare to go for it after all - especially at the moment when Donald Trump's administration in the United States is demonstrating its readiness to de-escalate with Russia. "Yes, they will crack down on travel companies, but they will not be able to lower a full-fledged iron curtain," the expert believes.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
