Businessmen close to Putin continue their business in Latvia / Article

Arkadijs Rotenbergs, one of Putin’s main “wallets”, signs part of his assets in the name of a Latvian citizen.

The oligarchs Rotenbergs also control the Latvian company “IMNI” through Cyprus offshore, through which the chain of owners leads both to a house in Austria, which was given to one of Putin’s daughters, and also to this building in Latvia in Priedkalne.

Oligarchs in Latvia have their own “emissaries” that trade securities internationally, deal with car leasing and mortgage lending. All this helps to avoid sanctions and make purchases in Europe, concluded “The Insider”.

“As it turns out, Vladimir Putin’s closest friends still manage assets in Latvia. Many Russian military businessmen have business here. Followers of Putin and “United Russia” live in this,” said Sergejs Yezhovs, investigative journalist of “The Insider”.

“The Insider” also draws attention to buildings in Jurmala. Tatiana Krivenko, a former member of the Russian Duma from United Russia, and her husband Valery Fokin own property there, despite unpaid debts.

There is also a house in Jurmala for the family of Natalia Timakova, former press secretary of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev.

The publication indicated that the Russian gas giant “Gazprom” is still making profits in Latvia, the minority shareholders of Rietumu Banka include representatives from Russia, which manufactures warships and orders another weapon, and that the Latvian company Fiber Optical Solution is a shareholder. to arms manufacturing companies. not only directly, but, in case of sanctions, through tours through “Turkey”.

“As we all understand, European sanctions are far from ideal. For example, the same Bokarev and Mahmudov are subject to US sanctions, but not to European sanctions,” said Yezhov. “There are many flaws in Europe’s sanctions policy, including the need for consolidated decisions here. And a country, for example, Hungary, can prevent someone from being sanctioned.

Accordingly, Latvia can do nothing, said the journalist, at the same time citing several examples when national governments that have such problems have been resolved however.

“I always cite the example of Poland,” he continued. “And they, for example, brought in their own national sanctions. At the beginning, they could nationalize some companies, make forced purchases, look for a new owner.”

The Latvian government, on the other hand, admits that the situation is always being evaluated, but to prevent dubious business, it leans more towards solutions at the European level than national solutions.

“Then there must be justification. Well, if the product is something that helps the war effort in some way, of course we can go and accept sanctions, similar to how we did with manganese ore,” said the Minister of Economy (ZZS) Viktors Valainis. “We achieved not only that it does not travel through Latvian ports. But he doesn’t travel there at all, because it was suspected that it is a dual-use thing. As soon as it is about dual use or one that is on the military field, we already have the equipment, what do we do If it is not so, there is a procedure to evaluate if it is or not, if not, it will be very difficult to do. make such decisions.”

However, the government is still working on new proposals.

Report a bug