Latvia’s Historic Success in World Hockey Championships and Other Recent News

Photo: Edijs Palens/LETA/SIPA/Scanpix/LETA/LA.LV collage

A historic success

Most read

On Monday no need to go to work! The Saeima declares Monday a holiday in honor of hockey players

It will beautify gave an interesting report to a Russian journalist, after which the journalist was fired. The slide draws conclusions

Or Monday will be designated as a holiday in honor of the medal won by the hockey players?

Read other posts

On Sunday, the Latvian national team finished the championship with the third place, defeating the Americans 4:3 in the game for bronze medals.

For Latvia, it has become the most successful championship of all time. Previously, the best result was seventh place, won three times.

The Latvian national team started the championship with two losses, losing 0:6 to Canada and 1:2 to Slovakia. After that, for the first time in the history of the championship, they managed to defeat the Czechs (4:3 in extra time), as well as beat Norway 2:1, Slovenia 3:2, Kazakhstan 7:0 and Switzerland 4:3 in extra time. The points obtained in the last match allowed not only to enter the quarter-finals, but also to win the third place in subgroup B.

Latvian ice hockey players beat Sweden 3:1 in the quarterfinals, but lost to Canada 2:4 in the semifinals.

The Canadians became the winners of the world championships, beating Germany 5:2 in the decisive match.

Russians annoy Putin

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin was deliberately annoyed by the Russian Legion “Freedom of Russia” and “Russian Volunteer Corps” fighting in Ukraine, which freely entered Russian territory and occupied several settlements. Thus, the Russian Legion showed how vulnerable the Russian border was.

Several videos have been circulated on social networks in which representatives of the “Russian Volunteer Corps” claim to be on the territory of Russia and have issued a call to fight against the Kremlin regime, while calling on the residents of Russia’s border regions to “stay at home and not resist”: “We are not your enemies. Freedom is near!”

The governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, has confirmed that a group of Ukrainian saboteurs “entered the territory of the Graivoron district”. The Federal Security Service (FSB) building was attacked on Monday evening

An anti-terrorist regime and the “Edelweiss” plan have been announced in the area, which provides for the summoning of all ministry employees to police stations.

Videos circulating on social media show locals fleeing Belgorod in panic, causing huge traffic jams. People are cursing the officials because there are no bomb shelters to hide in case of an alarm.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has announced that only Russian citizens are conducting the operation in Belgorod.

“Ukraine is watching the events in the Belgorod region of Russia with interest and is studying the situation, but it has nothing to do with it,” said Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine.

Ushakov is in big trouble

The General Prosecutor’s Office has decided to prosecute several persons for bribery and abuse of official position in connection with the fare concessions introduced by the Riga City Council in 2018 on the transport routes of the “Rīgas mikroautobusu satiksme” (RMS) company, the LETA agency was informed by the prosecutor’s office.

LETA already wrote that the former mayor of Riga Nils Ušakovs (S) and his then deputy Andris Ameriks, who are currently members of the European Parliament, are involved in the case. Also involved in the case are the former head of the Riga City Council’s Traffic Department, former member of the board of the municipality-owned “Rīgas satiksme” Emīls Jakrins and former manager of “Rīgas satiksme” Leons Bemhen, as well as the former member of the Amerika party, Aleksandrs Brandavs, who in 2018 was the real beneficiary of RMS.

The prosecutor’s office informed that the former intermediate owner of RMS was held criminally liable for offering a large amount of material values ​​- a bribe – to two former senior officials of the Riga City Council for ensuring that the relevant regulatory acts and decisions for the introduction of such fare reductions are developed and adopted in the Riga City Council .

On the other hand, two former officials of “Rīgas satiksme” have been brought to criminal liability for obtaining foreign property by abusing trust and fraud (fraud) on a large scale and in an organized group, and for intentional actions, abusing official position, for greedy purposes, which caused serious consequences.

These persons are accused of carrying out purposeful and coordinated actions in order, contrary to the interests of the Riga City Council and “Rīgas satiksme”, to ensure the introduction of the mentioned fare reductions on RMS routes, as a result of which a large amount of property damage was caused – no less than 10,176,756 euros.

In connection with the mentioned offences, the General Prosecutor’s Office has also sent a proposal to the European Parliament for consent to the initiation of criminal prosecution against two current MPs, in order to be able to accuse them of bribery, fraud and abuse of office.

The case was handed over for prosecution by the Corruption Prevention and Combating Office, which previously informed that the former chairman of the Riga City Council, his deputy and the intermediary owner of the general company agreed on the necessary actions to implement bribery.

The agreement provided for making changes in the regulatory acts, so that the general company could receive payments from the Riga City Council through its capital companies for the transportation of passengers with reduced fares, and 30% of these revenues to be paid monthly in cash as a bribe to the chairman of the Riga City Council and his deputy. The general partnership and its members earned such additional income from May 2018 to April 2020.

In order to achieve amendments to the regulatory acts, two other officials of the municipality’s capital company prepared and provided the decision-makers with false information about the validity of granting fare concessions and the impact on the economic interests of the municipality and its capital company.

LETA already wrote that on September 9, 2022, the Riga City Court declared RMS insolvent, therefore passenger transportation was no longer provided on the routes served by the company.

RMS express bus services in Riga were provided in accordance with the contract concluded in 2018. From 2019 to the autumn of last year, “Rīgas satiksme” paid 25 million euros to RMS for the service provided by transporting passengers.

RMS belongs to SIA “B-Bus”, whose true beneficiary is Vitalijs Komars.

The General Prosecutor’s Office requests the EP’s consent to initiate criminal prosecution against Ushakov and America

SO much deserved! Shilov was recognized as the most valuable player and the best goalkeeper of the World Championship

It is also reported that last December the Riga City Court acquitted Ušakov in a criminal case for possession of a prohibited video surveillance device. The prosecutor’s office presented the charge against Ušakov at the end of 2021, according to the article of the Criminal Law on the violation of the prohibition on the circulation of specially created or adapted equipment, devices or tools for operational measures to be carried out in a special way.

In November 2021, the EP revoked Ušakov’s parliamentary immunity. Ušakovs retains the powers of an EP member, as they are granted to him by the Latvian state as a member of the European Parliament and no other institution can take them away.

Themes