Veteran leader Vladimir Norvind is expelled from Latvia

Although Interior Minister Sandris Ģirgens has not traditionally commented on the reasons for his deportation, it is known that Norvinds actively cooperated with the staff of the Russian embassy, which represents the intelligence services of the neighboring country, and may have attracted foreign funding to veterans’ organizations. It is also known that he worked closely with an employee suspected of being a representative of Daugavpils organized crime.

Former polytechnic

Norvind is a former officer of the USSR Armed Forces and has served in military political positions since the 1960s – a politician, the task of this category of officers is to take care of the army’s political supervision and propaganda.

He graduated from Lviv’s highest military-political military school, was in both Afghanistan and Chernobyl, and was demobilized from the army in 1993 as a colonel. He managed to stay in Latvia when the governments of Latvia and Russia signed an agreement on the social protection of Russian military pensioners and their family members living in the territory of our country during the withdrawal of the USSR armed forces.

It is known that Norvind was one of the most active representatives of veterans’ organizations and was almost always seen in various events commemorating the time of the USSR organized by the Russian Embassy. He is also said to be in contact with the staff of the Military Attaché of the Russian Embassy, who are known as officers of the General Intelligence Department of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

The most money in the Crimean annexation year

Norvind may also be a member of the All-Russian Public Organization of Veterans of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, which works very closely with the Russian Ministry of Defense. There is a version that it funds the Norinda-led Republican Veterans’ Association, whose main tasks are to unite all army veterans and patriotically educate youth to propagate the traditions of Russia’s military history.

According to Lursoft, the mentioned veterans’ association earned the most income in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea – almost 41,000 euros. In 2018, the income was 13,000 euros, no report has been submitted for the previous year. The Slavic cultural association Harmonika, led by Norvinda, has an average annual turnover of 20,000 to 30,000 euros.

According to unofficial information, the deportation decision was signed on October 6, and Norvind was initially taken to the illegal immigrants’ center in Mucenieki. However, on the way to the border, on October 9, he allegedly became ill, and Norvind was taken to Stradiņš Hospital, where, under the supervision of the border guard, he also spent some time.

He has already left the territory of our country. Norvinds was married to a Latvian citizen, but he was a non-citizen himself, having become a Russian citizen in 2012. The embassy of the neighboring country has immediately condemned Latvia’s actions.

Veteran with the nickname Gypsy

Among Norway’s security services, Norvinda’s cooperation with Vasilijs Krupeņičs, an Afghan war veteran living in Daugavpils, who is considered one of the most influential organizers of smuggling and is known by the nickname Gypsy, has caused great concern.

He wanted to become the leader of the All-Latvian Association of Veterans of War and Other Military Conflicts in Latvia and even tried to achieve this in court.

In 2016, a representative of the international organization Brotherhood of War, Major General Gennady Shorohov, tried to attend a conference organized by the association, but he was detained at the airport and deported from Latvia. The organization, led by retired Colonel-General Boris Gromov, has as its main objective the support of Vladimir Putin’s regime, and has also recruited militants for the war against Ukraine.

Krupeņičs is considered to be one of the most visible supporters of this organization in Latvia, he has also been noticed as an organizer of the participation of Latvian students in Russian military patriotic camps. Heirs of victory.

Alcohol warehouse with underground passage

In November 2011, the Riga Latgale Suburb Court ruled in favor of Krupeņič’s arrest – he was detained in a Moscow suburb café during a meeting with Lieutenant Colonel Viktor Montik, who at the time held a senior position in the Riga Regional Criminal Police Department in connection with the fight against smuggling.

He found more than 13,000 lats near Montika and his car. The day before, law enforcement officers in Daugavpils opened a carefully arranged warehouse for illegal alcohol and cigarettes, where they found ten tons of alcohol. It was stored in large tanks, on the ceiling of the built-in boiler house. With a specially installed piping system, the alcohol could be poured into smaller containers using a simple water tap. In case of an unexpected visit of visitors, an underground passage to the nearby forest was also excavated.

Montik had to leave the police to work, but in 2015 the prosecutor’s office terminated the criminal proceedings against him for covering up smuggling. The investigators also failed to prove anything – Montik himself did not own anything valuable, but several relatives without legal income did not manage to link the exclusive real estate with him. The investigation was carried out by the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau together with the State Revenue Service.

Also detained in Ukraine

In March 2017, Krupenič was detained at the Polish border as he tried to remove pyrotechnic cartridges hidden in the fuel tank of a Ukrainian car – they are used in military aviation to catapult a pilot’s seat in an accident.

According to the Ukrainian press, at the time of his arrest, Krupenich had repeatedly tried to set fire to the fuel tank, and initially he was even accused of trying to kill law enforcement officers while on duty. He even faced life imprisonment, but for unknown reasons he avoided responsibility.

In March of this year, the Senate of the Supreme Court began hearing a case concerning a verdict prohibiting Krupeņič from registering the mass media – a free newspaper published by his association Pereval. According to the security authorities, its content showed signs of war propaganda and distortion of historical facts.

It is interesting that in 2010 the office of Ainārs Platačs, a lawyer who had disappeared without a trace, was involved in a dispute with SIA Mednis, which belongs to Krupeņičs, over the payment of a fee of 1180 lats.