Latvian and Soviet actor Ivars Kalnins said in the RTVI program “Legend”, why and when he stopped coming to Russia, as well as how the conflict in Ukraine is dealt with in Latvia.
According to the actor, he managed to get a Russian visa only on February 24, 2022, and after the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, he decided not to come to the country anymore. “I did not receive a visa, and it was before February 24. And then I realized that it is not necessary. Yes, I don’t work because I can’t go. I cannot work in the country where my friends live, but (there is) another country where my friends also live,” he said.
Kalniņš added that in general Latvians are “against what is happening in Ukraine”. “That’s not the way to solve the problem. It is clear that Ukrainians want their own economy. The last colonization system has collapsed. The colonial system was, as many historians believe…
Well, the communists did not give happiness to all peoples, you have to calm down. Let’s do it differently. If you really want an empire, then make an empire in your territory, master of Siberia. But now we need some kind of slaves again, we have to dispossess someone, send them there, and the repressed will build a new BAM, which has not been completed,” concluded indignant the actor.
According to him, these errors will have to be corrected by “the next generation, who will normally look each other in the eye and think, ‘Oh my god, what the hell are we doing?’
On January 23, 2023, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced a decision to lower the level of diplomatic relations with Estonia, explaining this as a response to the recent reduction in embassy staff in Tallinn. After that, Latvia also announced the downgrading of diplomatic relations with Russia. The country’s foreign ministry said it made such a decision because of the ongoing Russian military operation against Ukraine and as a sign of solidarity with Estonia. In the State Duma, relations with the Baltic countries have been described as “the dead cannot die twice”. According to its spokesman Vyacheslav Volodin, in the Baltic countries “ethnic minorities are flouted, they are forbidden to speak their mother tongue and independent journalists and human rights activists are persecuted”.
