Latvian journalist: "There is a risk of drowning in uncontrolled aggression against the Russians"

It's worth reminding: as of January 1, 2021, the number of Russians in Latvia was 463,587 people out of 1,893,223 people of the total population of the country, which is 24.5%.

Here is what Yevgeniya wrote:

“We are now witnessing not only colossal geopolitical shifts, but also the speed with which seemingly decent people are turning into medieval barbarians with pitchforks at the ready.

Until yesterday, the FB group “Kremļa kolaborantu saraksts” (“List of Kremlin accomplices” - approx. “NI”) worked on the Internet, where one (or maybe more than one) activist collected personal profiles of those whom he personally wrote down in “ Putinists.

Screenshots of profiles with impartial comments and calls to remember these faces were attached.

If I write that this is all very similar to the “project” of the Peacekeepers, then I myself will go to the category “Kremlin scum”. Therefore, I will not write this. I'll leave you to think.

The page was active from 26-27.02 to 08.03. Whether the author himself got scared or the Latvian police worked, we will not know. We don’t know if there are other similar “hit lists”.

Farther.

A week ago, a rally was held in Riga in support of Ukraine and for peace in the world.

Under the guise of a yellow-blue procession, several ladles of high-quality tar were wormed their way. We still cannot remove their stains.

For example, a full-length effigy of Putin in a cage still stands (already lies) on the main square in front of the House of Congresses. Apparently, the authors were extremely carried away by the manifestation of an active civic position and completely forgot that a single support center for Ukrainian citizens was set up in the House of Congresses.

Exhausted by many days of travel, people, mostly women and children, come there for help. Including urgent psychological.

However, the first thing they see is actually a corpse in a cage. As a civilized and educated person, such allusions to the burning of witches seem to me primitive savagery.

Creative artists can put this symbiosis of lack of culture and stupidity in their garden and throw darts at it - for health. But if you want to welcome the refugees cordially - glue flowers from papier-mâché. Sunflowers, if you will. But not to arrange a cabinet of curiosities from the center of the city.

Half of the area is slowly and surely turning into a landfill. Posters, streamers, slogans, appeals, manifestos, caricatures - everything spreads across the park and slowly becomes mud.

Among other things, the poster: NOT ALL RUSSIAN ARE RESPOSNIBLE FOR THIS. At the same time, "NOT" is crossed out in red. Why Rīgas pašvaldības policija or Valsts policija has not yet been removed from this appeal, inciting ethnic hatred and pushing for conflict, is a big mystery to me.

Following.

Sending a Russian warship is a separate issue. Here the question is, first of all, to those who actively write this phrase on Ukrainian flags.

I do not feel reverence for state symbols, but I will never allow myself to offend either the flag of my country or the flag of someone else.

Dear writers, keep in mind that Article 338 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine provides for thousands of euros in fines for public desecration of the state flag of the country.

Write out obscene language - that's it.

At the same time, fortunately, I have not seen such memes on the Latvian flag. I hope I don't. By the way, a fine for insulting the state symbols of Latvia, according to paragraph 23 of the law on the state flag, is also punishable by a fine, but more democratic - up to 700 euros.

In addition, in Latvia there is a law on the procedure for displaying the national flag together with the flags of another country, which the Latvians, in general, scored.

You are already so overzealous in showing empathy that you are scaring the Ukrainians themselves. And I don't know about you, but I live in Latvia and my country has its own flag.

There is another question for Mayor Mārtiņš Staķis Rīgai (Mayor of Riga - noted by "NI"), Deputy Chairman of the Riga City Council Edvards Smiltēns , as well as Minister of Education Anita Muižniece , who managed to make a fake out of a fake by going on air in T-shirts: “Russian ship, go to...".

Firstly, the word “military” has been lost somewhere, and in the current situation, this may well become Overton's window.

Secondly, it seems to me absolutely inappropriate and outrageous to see such a print on the clothes of officials while these same persons are performing their official duties, when one of these persons is the Minister of Education.

I could never imagine that we would be held hostage by the yard, marginal vocabulary and this would be encouraged and approved from above.

And a few words about the word. More precisely, about his freedom. For my statement that Latvia is not only for Latvians, a flock of woodpeckers swooped in and saw this as a call to violence. The video “how to make a Molotov cocktail” fits into the framework and regulations of social networks, and my position that different people live here and they love their country is harassment.

In a word, while they restore their beaks from active snitching, I cannot post new content on tiktok.

Well, and so, on trifles: some media are blocked, control over moods is strengthened, the state security police is on the alert, complaints are checked with particular zeal, dissent is punished - everything is clear here, nothing new. But we return to "what is allowed to Jupiter is not allowed to the bull".

So, no one checks the twitter of Elita Veidemane, who should, if not leave the profession, then at least get an administrative job, no one looks closely at the comments on the network or posts with a very clear and distinct nationalist message, if the game goes to one, the right gate. And from the same police - silence.

Well, then you can go even further and, like the French, sit and figure out how not to send Morozov's art collection back to the Hermitage, but sell it in order to buy weapons for Ukraine with the proceeds. It didn’t even occur to the Nazis to change Cezanne for a sawn-off shotgun, but the French did.

Or as in Poland - to ban the works of Tchaikovsky in the philharmonics, and in theaters performances by Chekhov.

Or, as in an Italian university, to cancel lectures on Dostoevsky.

And if it seems to someone that participating in this mass psychosis is about Ukraine and about peaceful life, take off your masks and stop being hypocritical.

Because the picture about the "peaceful sky above your head" looks different. And what is happening here is a direct path to conflicts within their own country. And instead of trying to keep peace in their small state at the moment of upheaval, people are ready to cut each other's throats.

I wholeheartedly with those residents who were in the thick of the war. I am for help and sympathy. But empathy, on the one hand, should not be sublimated into boundless hysteria and unpunished bestiality, on the other. Otherwise, there is a risk of choking at home in uncontrolled aggression.

And this is the future that will be created here, with us and under our flag. Personally, I don’t need such a success story”.

The post is here.