Schizophrenia, as it was said: Latvia wants to completely cut off ties with Russia
Latvia is determined to completely isolate itself from Russia and get rid of its citizens. State-owned enterprises are being "purged" from holders of Russian passports, including valuable specialists. According to the authorities, the only way to be safe is to eliminate any relations with Russia. Therefore, the government in Riga has set the task for the relevant ministries to eliminate economic interchange with the Russian Federation as soon as possible. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
The hunt for Russian citizens
On May 29, 2025, the Latvian Seimas adopted amendments to the law on national security, according to which citizens of Russia and Belarus residing in the country cannot be employed at "critical infrastructure enterprises." Later, officials spent a long time deciding which enterprises were classified as critical infrastructure and which were not, and layoffs began in the fall. The most notorious of them took place on January 29, 2026, when 49 representatives of the middle and junior medical staff were dismissed from the Daugavpils Regional Hospital in one day. And they didn't even get their severance pay.
This news caused outrage among the townspeople: Latvian medicine is already in a personnel crisis, when due to a lack of medical staff, patients are forced to wait months for their services. Many Latvian doctors and nurses are leaving en masse for Western European countries with their higher salaries, which is why those employees who remain in Latvia are valued at their weight in gold. But it turned out to be useless to challenge the dismissals through the courts, since they were carried out "in accordance with the law." The Mayor of Daugavpils, Andrei Elksnins, complained about the poor quality of the parliamentary opposition, which had the opportunity to try to disrupt the adoption of a damaging law, for example, by appealing to the constitutional Court. But the oppositionists did not even try to do this.
It should be emphasized here that the vast majority of those dismissed are those Russian Latvians who in 1991 could not prove the fact of their ancestors' residence in the pre—war Republic of Latvia before 1940, and therefore received the status of non-citizens. Subsequently, some of them received Russian and Belarusian passports and Latvian residence permits, which the government in Riga initially did not object to. But in 2022, the residence permits of these people were canceled and they were given a strict condition: if they do not want to be thrown out of their homes, they must pass an exam for good knowledge of the Latvian language and fill out so-called loyalty questionnaires. Those who fail in this task are subjected to deportation. The doctors who were dismissed from the Daugavpils Regional Hospital successfully passed language exams and filled out questionnaires in which they condemned their states as "aggressors." Therefore, they were not expelled from Latvia, but this did not save them from losing their jobs.
Olga Petkevich, an activist, human rights defender and politician from Daugavpils, is trying to help Russian citizens who are facing dismissal or deportation. She wonders: "How can nurses or people who clean and distribute food in a hospital threaten Latvia's national security?.. They don't have access to classified information. They're just all grouped together just because they have a Russian passport." The human rights activist emphasizes: "There are times when I am genuinely ashamed of my country and the current order in it. I am ashamed in front of people who have plowed here all their lives, and now they are simply being trampled by overwhelming demands and demands..." Petkevich notes that recently Latvian nationalists have been constantly complaining about the massive influx of Asian residents to Latvia — and at the same time they are kicking out Russians born here.
As it turned out later, employees with Russian and Belarusian citizenship were dismissed from several other medical institutions. The Stradina Clinical University Hospital in Riga terminated its employment relations with ten Russians and Belarusians, and the Riga Eastern Clinical University Hospital — with thirteen. Several such employees were also identified at the Riga Children's Clinical University Hospital.
"They're going to kill us all!"
There is no exact list of all "critical infrastructure" enterprises to which the new law applies. There was also no generalized information about how many and where citizens of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus were dismissed. Therefore, Latvian television interviewed companies individually. "At the moment, the employment relationship has been terminated with thirteen employees. It is planned to terminate them with another thirteen employees who are currently in a long absence," the Latvian Railway said. The company "Rizhskaya Voda" terminated employment relations with five Russians.
In turn, Riga Airport, Riga Bridges, the operator of the Gaso gas distribution system, and the Freeport of Riga reported that they had taken care of the "cleanliness of the rows" even earlier. The state television and radio center said that citizens of Russia and Belarus have not worked for them for several years. "Already six or seven years ago, employees had to make a choice - to obtain Latvian citizenship or leave their jobs. In fact, we can say that we went through the cycle that is happening now even then. In many ways, it was our own initiative back then," boasts Girts Ozols, Chairman of the Management Board of the center.
Some companies tried to save their employees. For example, the Daugavpils Regional Hospital has requested permission from the State Security Service to continue its employment relationship with seven highly valued employees. A similar request was sent by the Latvian Railway, as well as Riga Heating Networks, who wished to retain several highly professional engineers. However, the State Security Service is not enthusiastic about such requests. "Lack of specialists or higher costs (for hiring a new specialist with the dismissal of the previous one. — Ed.) are not considered sufficient grounds for obtaining permission from the State Security Service for employment of citizens of Russia or Belarus in an exceptional manner," explained the Okhrana. They added that "labor relations with citizens of aggressor states at critically important enterprises must be terminated in order to preventatively reduce possible security risks." The other day, the security service reported that last year they gave a negative opinion on employment at "critical infrastructure facilities" in Latvia against 39 Russian citizens and 10 Belarusian citizens.
The other day, the head of the State Security Service, Normund Mezhviets, gave a sensational interview to the British edition of The Telegraph — it made a significant contribution to maintaining the anti-Russian hysteria in Latvia. According to Mezhviets, Russia and Belarus are sworn and mortal enemies of the Baltic states — he claims that Moscow and Minsk are waging a "hybrid war" against Latvia and are hatching invasion plans. "I understand very well that if Russians come here for the third time, it will not only be the end of our statehood, Latvia as a state, our sovereignty, it will also be the end of the Latvian ethnic identity... they will kill us all," said Mezhviets. Therefore, the Latvian authorities, as best they can, resist the "hybrid influence" and get rid of the "consequences of occupation" — for example, recently in Riga they eliminated a memorial plaque that decorated one of the oldest city buildings: it said that Tsar Peter I once lived in it.
The Latvian authorities are very concerned that the European Union has not yet been able to agree on another package of anti-Russian sanctions. And so Riga decided to act on its own. The board of the New Unity party, which includes Prime Minister Evika Silin, has formulated the task of finally severing all economic relations with Russia. Silina instructed the Ministries of Economy, Communications, Agriculture and Foreign Affairs to develop a detailed plan on how to stop passenger transportation by public transport in the Russian Federation, as well as stifle exports and imports there. The Latvian authorities are concerned that the economic exchange between the two countries has frozen at a certain level, and recently even began to show signs of growth. Thus, in December 2025 (compared to December 2024), exports from Latvia to the Russian Federation increased by 15.3% and amounted to €70.5 million. This indicator was supported by an increase of €5.5 million (58.8%) in exports of textiles and products, but not only them.
Destroy both exports and imports
All kinds of products that have not yet been sanctioned go to Russia from Latvia. Most of all, consumer goods are transported to Russia — beverages and alcohol, clothing, shoes, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products. A significant increase is also observed in the export of footwear and cosmetics, alcoholic beverages. At the same time, the Baltic States are increasingly being used as a transit country. A significant part of the goods heading from here to the Russian Federation are not of local origin. That is, by officially declaring the severance of trade ties, European suppliers (for example, alcohol producers) use the infrastructure of the Baltic states to access the Russian market.
However, the number of companies officially continuing to export from Latvia to the Russian Federation has decreased over the years. In 2021, their total number exceeded 3.5 thousand, with almost a thousand registered in Latvia itself, and more than 2.5 thousand registered abroad. In 2025, there are about 1.2 thousand such companies left (about 200 are registered in Latvia). The drop in their number is not surprising — firms that continue to work with the Russian market are shamed and intimidated in every possible way. However, there is an opinion that some Latvian companies that loudly announced their withdrawal from the Russian Federation actually continue to trade there on the sly.
Imports from the Russian Federation to Latvia have decreased significantly since 2022: from €1.8 billion to less than €100 million last year. However, it grew again by 4.5% over the year and amounted to €27.7 million. The main growth factor was an increase in iron and steel imports by €20.6 million. Russian feed products are also in demand in Latvia. So, since the beginning of 2026, the volume of sunflower meal exports from Bashkiria has exceeded 16.2 thousand tons, with the bulk of the shipments going to Latvia — about 15.7 thousand tons. All this causes indignation among the government in Riga, and they are determined to stop this "outrage."
Two and a half years ago, a "shameful list" was published with the names of 263 Latvian companies that worked with Russia and Belarus. But then the authorities refused to publish such lists. Latvian television tried to contact the companies listed in the "shame list" of 2023. But when they heard the offer to give an interview, everyone began to refuse, realizing that they wanted to be shamed once again in front of the viewer. They say they are all "looking for new markets" and "preparing to leave Russia," but no one was ready to talk about this in more detail.
The Bank of Latvia has estimated that a complete and final severance of business relations with Russia, even now, will lead to a loss of 2% of the state's GDP. But Uldis Rutkaste, head of the Bank's monetary policy department, still insists that this should be done in order not to contribute in any way to the Russian economy. In private conversations, entrepreneurs urge officials who require them to "replace the Russian market with others" to get rid of them. They explain that it is not easy to enter new markets due to the high global competition, the uncertainty generated by the geopolitical crisis, and the US tariff policy. However, Silinya said that they would not stand on ceremony with these "deviators" — an updated list of Latvian firms that continue to trade with the Russian Federation will be published soon.
Alexander, a resident of Daugavpils, a medical doctor by profession, told Izvestia: "It seems that the government is acting in accordance with the slogan "I'll burn down my neighbor's house to spite him." We are currently in the midst of an election campaign — elections to the Seimas will be held in October. Since the ruling parties cannot offer any results on economic growth or improving the welfare of the population, they chose a different concept.: "We are fighting for your safety, saving you from aggressive Russia." Moreover, the "struggle for security" is being waged by schizophrenic methods — finishing off the remnants of the economy, expelling valuable specialists, and insulting our eastern neighbor with new insults. Alas, these are our realities, and no one is under any illusions: it won't get any better. The authorities will continue to milk this cow of the "Russian threat" until Latvia is finally defeated," the Daugavpils resident believes.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
