Paul
Goble
Staunton, February 7 -- The issue of secessionist sentiment in
Latgale, the eastern region of Latvia, is more “a mole hill” than “a mountain”
largely created by the Russian media but nonetheless is one with some basis in
reality, according to Rosbalt.ru journalist Petr Zhuk, who adds that it must therefore
must be a matter of continuing concern for Riga.
As Zhuk notes, the appearance of
this issue at all is largely because of the actions of Vladimir Linderman, a
Latvian Russian of Jewish origin who is a member of Russia’s National Bolshevik
Party since 1997, who three years ago called for a discussion on autonomy for
Latgale (rosbalt.ru/exussr/2015/02/06/1365394.html).
In response, the Latvian Security
Police conducted an investigation, including searching Linderman’s office, and
filed charges against him. Latvian officials both in Latgale and in Riga said
at the time and have repeatedly said since then that there is no popular
support for any secession.
The issue appeared to have died
until a few weeks ago when stories about the creation of a Latgale Peoples
Republic began to circulate online and when one of them showed a map of Latvia
minus Latgale. Emblazoned on it was the unofficial flag of the kray with Latgale
Peoples Republic written in Russian.
The security police announced that
they had identified the culprits although they have not released their names
because the case is still sub judice. But some in the police said that these
sanctions “’correspond to the geopolitical interests of Russia’” and that
Latvians should inform the authorities if there are any new developments, Zhuk
reports.
Jānis Lāčplēsis, the mayor of Daugavpils, the largest city in Latgale,
said that all such talk about secession was the purest fabrication, adding that
while “there are people in Riga who call themselves Latgales, in Latgalia, you
can’t name even one prominent one.” The
whole business is an invention.
Solvita Āboltiņa, former
speaker of the Latvian parliament, agreed, insisting that any such talk about
secession is “very dangerous because it casts doubt on the territorial
integrity of the Latvian state,” something that Russia may want to do both
within Latvia and elsewhere to sow doubts about Latvia.
There have now been parliamentary hearings about this,
prompting Zhuk to ask “Are Latvian politicians making a mountain out of a mole
hill?” Or is this the case that the security police are interested in coming up
with a threat that justifies more actions on their part – and more money for
their organization?
Vladimir Sokolov, the vice president of the Union of
Citizens and Non-Citizens, suggested that the whole issue had been blown out of
proportion. The Latgale flag was dreamed up by a high school history teacher on
the basis of an analogy with the Livs who have had their own flag since 1923.
The first time the flag of Latgale was flown, Sokolov
continues, was in 2010, when the police team from Latgale won first place in a
Latvia-wide competition. It did not have any political connotation but was only
and is a symbol of local patriotism and only that. (Cf.
Sokolov’s
words prompted Zhuk to the following reflections: “Is the business with the ‘Latgale
Peoples Republic’ a provocation? Undoubtedly. Should the Security Police react?
Of course, they should – that is their job. Are their preconditions for
realizing ‘a project’ of a ‘Latgale Peoples Republic’? Practically none. But the
police are acting on the principle that it is better to prevent than to have to
react.”
To
say this, he continues, is not to say that Latgale does not have real problems.
Unemployment is higher there than in other parts of Latvia, and it has gone up
as a result of sanctions against Russia. It is losing population and
consequently is losing funding from the center. But that is only a
manifestation of the old chicken and egg issue as to which came first.
Moreover,
Latgale is on the border with Russia and Belarus and is affected by this. But
that doesn’t make separatist attitudes strong. And according to Zhuk, “events
in Ukraine which have shown all the horrors and misfortunes, destruction and
death” that separatism can cause have reduced rather than increased any separatist
impulses in Latgale.
Indeed,
he says, the entire Latgale issue probably would have blown over already had it
not been for the fact of two Internet projects in Lithuania about secessionism
there. Reports on those have led some in Latvia to revisit the Latgale issue
out of fears that Moscow has made the promotion of separatism part of its
larger strategy in the Baltic countries.
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