Neatkarīgā - Daily News from Latvia

22/03/2024

Interesanti un aizraujoši par svarīgāko 22. martā.

25/08/2022

Krievijas karaspēks atslēdzis spēkstacijas gaisa sakaru līniju ar Ukrainas energosistēmu, kam sekojušas izmaiņas AES darbā - okupantu darbības noveda pie pilnīgas AES atslēgšanas no tīkla, teikts "Enerhoatom" paziņojumā.

Krievijas karaspēks pilnībā atslēdzis Zaporižjas atomelektrostaciju (AES) no tīkla, ceturtdien pavēstīja Ukrainas atomenerģijas uzņēmums "Enerhoatom", norādot, ka nostrādājusi avārijas aizsardzība.

28/07/2022

"It is no coincidence that Russian leaders increasingly use prisoners' language: it is a gangster environment. If we look through this prism, there are no surprises. And I was not surprised for a moment that after the signing of the grain agreements there was a missile strike on the port of Odesa. But it will be a long process before European countries come to the sense that such Russian actions are not surprising," said Jānis Sārts, Director of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence. Here’s today's interview with him.

"It is no coincidence that Russian leaders increasingly use prisoners' language: it is a gangster environment. If we look through this prism, there are no surprises. And I was not surprised for a moment that after the signing of the grain agreements there was a missile strike on the port of Odesa. B...

28/07/2022

The influential international human rights organization Amnesty International falsely accuses the Republic of Latvia of a lack of kindness towards those migrants who try to enter our country through the mafia and the Belarusian regime, and demands that all those who want to be granted asylum in Latvia be given the right to do so. Given that Belarus is an ally of Russia in its war against Ukraine and in its hatred of the civilized world, this would be an extremely dangerous act.

The influential international human rights organization Amnesty International falsely accuses the Republic of Latvia of a lack of kindness towards those migrants who try to enter our country through the mafia and the Belarusian regime, and demands that all those who want to be granted asylum in Latv...

27/07/2022

Inga Vanaga: We are always open to compromise. We have informed politicians and civil servants of our demands. But it has been quite a long time, and we have not seen any willingness to compromise on their part - nothing at all is being offered. This is also confirmed by the draft information report on workload and pay issues. We had a meeting on July 21 and we saw that the draft MoES document does not provide a timeframe in which all teachers will have their workload rebalanced, but only some - some in five years, some in three years, but not all. The draft document also suggests that salaries will not be competitive, as the calculations are based on the last step of the current timetable. So the minimum pay (before tax) for teachers is €900. In 2023, it will rise to €976 and so on. The same is true for pre-school teachers. We are not being heard.

A conversation with Inga Vanaga, Chairperson of the Latvian Trade Union of Education and Science Employees (LIZDA).

26/07/2022

British citizens Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin, and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun, captured in Donbas fighting on the Ukrainian side, cannot be tried for participation in hostilities, as they are prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions

In wartime, it is important to have a basic knowledge of what a "combatant" means, which is a soldier in the regular army as opposed to a volunteer legionnaire or a mercenary.

26/07/2022

Yelena Lukyanova, daughter of Anatoly Lukyanov, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, expresses her dissatisfaction with the Latvian state's support for Russian scientists at Radio Svoboda's studio in Riga

Edvīns Šnore, a member of the Saeima, has sent a petition to the Minister of the Interior calling for the cancellation of the residence permit of Yelena Lukjanova, whose "public activities are contrary to Latvia's national interests".

25/07/2022

The satirist Mikhail Zhvanetsky is said to have said that it is better to deal with troubles in the order in which they occur. But the Ukrainian war, refugees, the looming food crisis, rising car fuel and combustible fuel prices all overlap... It seems like we have enough problems, but it is not enough yet. Lest the people of Latvia think that life is a peach, Covid that has been killing life and ruining the country's economy for the past two years is slowly returning to the top of the list of current disasters.

The satirist Mikhail Zhvanetsky is said to have said that it is better to deal with troubles in the order in which they occur. But the Ukrainian war, refugees, the looming food crisis, rising car fuel and combustible fuel prices all overlap... It seems like we have enough problems, but it is not eno...

25/07/2022

The Minister of Finance and the Director General of the State Revenue Service, in their answers to Neatkarīgā’s questions on tax evasion in the bus passenger transport sector, confirm everything said in Neatkarīgā’s publications of July 11 and 12 "Bus oligarchs do not transport passengers" and "Tax evaders found for state contracts".

The Minister of Finance and the Director General of the State Revenue Service, in their answers to Neatkarīgā’s questions on tax evasion in the bus passenger transport sector, confirm everything said in Neatkarīgā’s publications of July 11 and 12 "Bus oligarchs do not transport passengers" a...

24/07/2022

"We need to be strong and confident in our country, our language and our culture. Only in this way can we help others. Yes, we have to help Ukrainians today, but we must not forget where we come from, who we are, where our strength lies," says choreographer Agris Daņiļevičs.

24/07/2022

Russia is also trying to use prisoners to save its half-baked front in Ukraine, including self-styled astrologer Alexander Zaraev, who is reprieving his release from prison by babbling about guarantees of Russian victory written in the stars.

22/07/2022

A London judge has eased a freezing order on some accounts linked to Petr Aven used to pay bills and security, according to a ruling made public on Monday - the court dispute is part of an investigation into the billionaire's charges of evading sanctions imposed on him after Russia invaded Ukraine, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

A London judge has eased a freezing order on some accounts linked to Petr Aven used to pay bills and security, according to a ruling made public on Monday - the court dispute is part of an investigation into the billionaire's charges of evading sanctions imposed on him after Russia invaded Ukraine,....

20/07/2022

The nation's beloved actor and director, Intars Rešetins, has had to feel on his own skin the new "liberal" reality these days after he dared to write next to this picture: "Where are we going?"

19/07/2022

Vladimir Putin and his closest associate, Nikolai Patrushev, formulate the Russian national idea: since the price of human life in the West is incomparably higher than in Russia, we will force the West to conform to the world order we have established

Now that the war in Ukraine has been going on for five months and there is no sign of an end in the near future, one must try to understand how Putin plans to win this war, because objectively Russia's stand against the rest of the world, which supports Ukraine, is rather hopeless.

18/07/2022

There is a common understanding among Latvia's political leadership that we should stop buying natural gas from Russia. The aim of this policy is to not be a part of the financing of the Russian military machine. Every euro paid for natural gas supplied by Russia allows Russia to continue financing its aggression against Ukraine. This is why the Public Utilities Commission also put forward a proposal to the Saeima that would have the force of law to ban the supply of natural gas from Russia from January 1, 2023.

There is a common understanding among Latvia's political leadership that we should stop buying natural gas from Russia. The aim of this policy is to not be a part of the financing of the Russian military machine. Every euro paid for natural gas supplied by Russia allows Russia to continue financing....

18/07/2022

The Saeima and the government amended the Law on Assistance to Ukrainian Civilians in a mad rush, which - the amendments - will have to be amended immediately, not applied in practice.

17/07/2022

In the Second World War, no woman conscripted into the British army was awarded a medal for bravery on the battlefield. Was this discrimination?

16/07/2022

Even as the weekend approached, the buzz and talk around and about Positivus emigrating to Lucavsala was still rampant: some didn't like the new venue, some didn't like the artist list, some thought it was too expensive, etc. "What a worthless program, where is Žoržs Siksna, where is Viktors Lapčenoks, why no Eolika or at least the Beatles and the Rolling Stones!" those who had never stepped foot or poked their noses into Positivus before were joking and laughing on Twitter and Facebook. "Relax, it's going to rain anyway", grumbled those who had both poked their nose and stuck their foot in.

Even as the weekend approached, the buzz and talk around and about Positivus emigrating to Lucavsala was still rampant: some didn't like the new venue, some didn't like the artist list, some thought it was too expensive, etc. "What a worthless program, where is Žoržs Siksna, where is Viktors Lapč...

15/07/2022

As the start of school approaches, Swedbank has prepared an unpleasant gift for schoolchildren, their parents and all other customers - almost one million people in Latvia. On September 1, the prices of banking services will be increased.

15/07/2022

The declarations of public officials show that some civil servants in Latvia can become millionaires, as they say - from their salaries alone.

14/07/2022

The main factor driving Georgia towards the EU is the overwhelming popular support for this move. More than 80% of the Georgian population supports the country's accession to the EU, and this public desire cannot be ignored. Neither by the Georgian political class, nor its informal leader Bidzina Ivanishvili, nor EU bureaucrats. As French President Emmanuel Macron said after the huge demonstrations in Tbilisi: "Such popular enthusiasm for Euro-integration cannot fail to provide the necessary support for these reforms." In other words, the choice of Georgia's future is in the hands of the Georgian people themselves.

At the end of June, Georgia was swept by a wave of demonstrations unprecedented since the early 1990s. What were they protesting against? Against the EU's refusal to admit Georgia as a candidate country.

13/07/2022

Jeļena Ostapenko and Anastasija Sevastova represented and promoted Latvia with their great game. But this time the first place at Wimbledon went to Elena Rybakina from Kazakhstan

Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan has won the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. She became a Kazakh citizen in 2018, but until then was a Russian citizen. Either way, this is a huge, unprecedented sporting achievement for the country of Kazakhstan, and an opportunity to be proud.

13/07/2022

Reacting swiftly to an alert that was raised on the web, Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs a few days ago banned the entry to Latvia of a local St Petersburg politician, Savva Fedoseev, and it is hard to decide who fooled who in this story. The organizers of the fake lecture from a small opposition movement that actually exists in Russia or the Latvian Foreign Ministry.

Reacting swiftly to an alert that was raised on the web, Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs a few days ago banned the entry to Latvia of a local St Petersburg politician, Savva Fedoseev, and it is hard to decide who fooled who in this story. The organizers of the fake lecture from a small oppositio...

12/07/2022

Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation has opened an investigation into VS Energy, a very large Ukrainian energy company controlled by members of the Russian criminal organization Luzhniki - Kremlin-allied Alexander Babakov, Yevgeny Giner and Mikhail Voyevodin, reports the influential Ukrainian online media Ekonomicheskaya Pravda, citing a statement by a prosecutor from the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Roman Tulin, to Radio Svoboda.

Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation has opened an investigation into VS Energy, a very large Ukrainian energy company controlled by members of the Russian criminal organization Luzhniki - Kremlin-allied Alexander Babakov, Yevgeny Giner and Mikhail Voyevodin, reports the influential Ukrainian onl...

12/07/2022

This year marks the 50th anniversary of two "matches of the century". Although I was only nine years old in 1972, I remember them both very well, because they were indeed events that will be etched in my memory for the rest of my life.

11/07/2022

There has been a lot of good in Russian culture - for example, crayfish, which are small for three rubles, but bigger for five rubles; Venychka, who has never seen the Kremlin; Shurik, who says to Fedya: "It has to be done, Fedya!"; Cheburashka's birthday; the hare from “Nu Pogodi”; Mayakovsky's stars, which somebody must need if they're lit; Vysotsky's restless gypsy horses, Okudzhava's gr**e seed. This part of culture hardly promotes Bolshevism and imperialism.

The Russian army invaded Ukraine on February 24 without any sensible motivation and continues to do terrible things there - kill, r**e, loot, destroy infrastructure. And lie - lie all the time.

11/07/2022

Last week, the European Parliament endorsed rules that consider investments in nuclear energy as environmentally friendly technologies. This decision provoked a loud outcry from the greens in the European Parliament, but their efforts to stop it failed. Latvia has also finally started preparing to add nuclear power plants to its energy mix. A draft law will be considered by the Saeima this week.

Last week, the European Parliament endorsed rules that consider investments in nuclear energy as environmentally friendly technologies. This decision provoked a loud outcry from the greens in the European Parliament, but their efforts to stop it failed. Latvia has also finally started preparing to a...

11/07/2022

It is a peculiarity of Latvian political life that shortly before elections, parties actively recruit popular figures to their lists. Just now, Development/For! (Attīstībai/Par!) has announced that its list will include the well-known doctor Anatolijs Danilāns, the spouse of the former Estonian president Ieva Ilves and the TV actor Andris Lielais, the actor in Solovyov TV who defected from Russia.

It is a peculiarity of Latvian political life that shortly before elections, parties actively recruit popular figures to their lists. Just now, Development/For! (Attīstībai/Par!) has announced that its list will include the well-known doctor Anatolijs Danilāns, the spouse of the former Estonian p...

10/07/2022

Last weekend, Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic within Uzbekistan, was swept by a wave of violent and bloody protests. Upon learning that the planned amendments to the Uzbek constitution would no longer contain the article that Karakalpakstan is a sovereign republic with the theoretical possibility of seceding from Uzbekistan by referendum, mass riots broke out in Nukus, the capital of Karakalpakstan, and elsewhere.

Last weekend, Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic within Uzbekistan, was swept by a wave of violent and bloody protests. Upon learning that the planned amendments to the Uzbek constitution would no longer contain the article that Karakalpakstan is a sovereign republic with the theoretical possibi...

09/07/2022

The loudest and most visible event of the year in Latvian popular music life - the Positivus festival, which will take place on July 15 and 16 at a new location in Lucavsala - has quietly arrived. Ģirts Majors, the head of the concert agency Positivus Music, is optimistic about the festival and its future, although there are also reasons for some worries and reflections.

The loudest and most visible event of the year in Latvian popular music life - the Positivus festival, which will take place on July 15 and 16 at a new location in Lucavsala - has quietly arrived. Ģirts Majors, the head of the concert agency Positivus Music, is optimistic about the festival and its...