Latvian political blogger Stanislav Bukayns has asked for asylum in Russia, as he is accused of espionage and treason in his home country. This was reported by the Telegram channel Solovyov, then the information was confirmed by the official representative of the Russian Interior Ministry, Irina Volk.
“According to a law enforcement source, the man fled the country with his daughter and crossed the border in the Pskov region. Bukayns said that in Latvia he was threatened with criminal prosecution for travelling to Russia, he is also suspected of espionage,” the Telegram channel Solovyev said in a publication.
According to Bukayns himself, in Latvia he is on a list of people suspected of being “recruited for terrorist activities.” The migration service in Pskov has already accepted the application of the blogger and his daughter for refugee status; the issue is being handled by the main migration department of the Russian Interior Ministry.
Ruslan Pankratov, a researcher at the Institute of CIS Countries, who knows Bukayns, told Izvestia that the Latvian took serious risks to leave Latvia: he travelled down the water on an inflatable raft together with his five-year-old daughter Monika.
“He has indeed been prosecuted, that’s not news to anyone. The only question is why right now and why in this way (Bukayns crossed the border – ed.). If he had a non-deportation order, he could have gone to a neighbouring country – Estonia, Lithuania, Finland – and crossed the border there,” Pankratov said.
He noted that the Latvian security service could have spread a version about the kidnapping of the child and wanted Bukaines on that basis. The researcher at the Institute of CIS countries called the service’s employees “absolutely immoral people.”
“In Latvia, the state security service is called the Gestapo behind the eyes. Because the methods are the same, they are not interested in any evidence base,” he pointed out.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Western ideas of a new world order hypocrisy. According to him, they are aimed solely at preserving the neo-colonial system, showing their essence in the form of “hypocrisy, double standards and claims”.