Paul
Goble
Staunton, January 5 – Riga faces a
dramatically expanded Russian media campaign to discredit it in the eyes of
Latvians and the West and an increase in the activity of Russian special
services against it, according to Maris Tsepuritis, a researcher at the Riga
Center for Research on the Politics of Eastern Europe.
The analyst says he bases his
conclusion not only on existing trends in Russia’s handling of Latvia over the
past year but also on the fact that Moscow is especially interested in
blackening the reputation of Riga now that it has become for the next six
months the presidency of the EU Council (rus.delfi.lv/news/daily/latvia/analitik-v-latvii-zametno-usilitsya-aktivnost-rossijskih-specsluzhb.d?id=45407842).
The way in which Moscow treated
Lithuania during its EU presidency suggests some of the things Moscow may do to
Latvia, according to Tsepuritis. Among them are cyber attacks against the country’s
media networks and massive negative information campaigns to blacken Latvia’s
reputation internationally.
In addition, Tsepuritis said, it is likely
that Russian special services will also step up their activities in Latvia not
only to gain access to various kinds of information but also to carry out “various
destabilizing measures” and thus test NATO’s resolve concerning the defense of
its Baltic member states (regnum.ru/news/polit/1882371.html).
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