Handcuffs for the oligarch

Latvian port mayor faces prison sentence

Yesterday evening, the Riga Central District Court discussed for several hours the issue of a preventive measure against the mayor of the port city of Ventspils, Aivars Lembergs. The final decision was expected by midnight, but it did not address the essence of the charges brought against one of the most influential Latvian oligarchs: bribery, laundering about 20 million “dirty” dollars, illegal business. Aivars Lembergs was detained yesterday morning. Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga said the arrest of the mayor would have serious political consequences.

On Saturday, Ms. Vike-Freiberga postponed for two months the signing of amendments to the laws “On National Security” and “On State Security Institutions” and initiated the collection of signatures for holding a referendum on this issue. According to the president, the Sejm could approve amendments that threaten the leak of classified information under the influence of the oligarchs. Among influential representatives of big business, it was Lembergs who reacted most sharply to the president’s decision, accusing the head of state of “an attempt to destabilize the political situation.”

The ring around the mayor of Ventspils began to tighten last summer. The Prosecutor General's Office brought charges against him when the election campaign in Latvia was in full swing, and Lembergs was a candidate for prime minister from the government's Union of Greens and Peasants. The mayor of Ventspils was accused of receiving a bribe in 1993-1995 in the form of shares in a Swiss company, which he then sold for 453 thousand lats (approximately 900 thousand dollars). The Prosecutor General's Office also believes that since 1994, Lembergs has been a hidden shareholder of a Ventspils enterprise engaged in transshipment of potassium salt. On February 15 this year, lawyer Gint Laivins-Laivinieks, considered close to Lembergs, was detained on suspicion of money laundering. Investigators searched the lawyer's office and also examined the contents of the bank safes of the mayor and other city entrepreneurs.

According to unofficial information from the Latvian newspaper Diena, during the searches a document was discovered, which was called in the press the “list of scholarship holders.” Allegedly, it contains the names of people who received a very impressive “reward for good work” from some kind of “black cash”. This information is a real bomb, since representatives of the Latvian political elite may be on the list.

Lembergs himself has repeatedly stated that all the charges against him are fabricated, and the actions of the investigation are politically motivated. In particular, the mayor of Ventspils argued that Latvian politics is significantly influenced by George Soros, hinting that political forces associated with him might benefit from announcing early elections to the Seimas. Lembergs also made attacks against the Russian Ambassador to Latvia, Viktor Kalyuzhny. In February, on the pages of the magazine Respublika, he stated that the diplomat, guided by personal interests, was spreading false information that Lembergs was personally to blame for stopping the transit of oil from Russia through Ventspils. “The ambassador's statements should be regarded as activities in the interests of specific economic and political forces,” Lembergs argued.

Danuta DEMBOVSKAYA, Riga