Latvian political blogger Stanislav Bukains crossed the Russian border and applied for asylum in the Russian Federation.
The man and his five-year-old daughter illegally crossed the Zilupe River from Latvia to Russia on a SUP board last weekend, but subsequently ended up in detention by the Russian authorities. The State Border Guard Service has opened a criminal case for illegal border crossing, kidnapping of a minor and requested official information from the Russian side about the persons’ status in Russia.
“We know that the child’s father and the child illegally crossed the Latvian-Russian border. The incident was detected by the State Border Guard, which has also started criminal proceedings. Both persons have been detained in Russia,” said the police.
The law enforcement authorities promptly took all the necessary actions: the girl received an international wanted notice and the Interpol request went to the Russian authorities for information on the child’s whereabouts, the police said. The criminal case has not yet commenced against Bukains, as the preliminary investigation is still ongoing.
On the evening of 26 July, Russian Interior Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk confirmed the information in her Telegram channel. According to her, the man fled the country together with his daughter and crossed the border in the Pskov region. Bukains explained his act by the fact that in Latvia he faces criminal prosecution for travelling to Russia, and may also stand a charge of espionage.
Last October, the prosecutor’s office charged six people in the criminal case of the Baltic Anti-Fascists organisation, which counts as a criminal organisation. Three of them at the time remained on the wanted list. The six are Tatjana Andrijeca, Aleksanders Zguns, Bukains, Sergejs Vasiljevs, Viktorija Matule and Romans Samuls. Some went to Belarus.
Latvia is also home to thousands of Russians, who make up a quarter of the population. In September last year, a series of bills aimed at phasing out Russian from schools and making Latvian language exams compulsory for non-citizens who want to stay in the country constituted discrimination. The UN has also called these laws discriminatory.
The Baltic states are squeezing out the Russian-speaking population, oppressing Russians, depriving them of citizenship, harassing children in schools, and kicking out the elderly for failing to pass the state language exam. In spring 2023, for instance, Latvian Saeima deputy Janis Dombrava called for deportation of Russian citizens, who live in the country under the residence permit for investment programme or those who were denied citizenship in the early 1990s.
