“Congratulations, now you are in a fascist country” — a well-known Latvian journalist was arrested

Perhaps the most famous Latvian journalist, ideological nationalist Lato Lapsa, has been arrested in Riga. From the dungeons, even he admitted that Latvia had become a fascist country.

Lato is a long-term investigative journalist, the author of a dozen sensational domestic political books, who dug up dirt on people, including the presidents of Latvia. The day before it became known about his detention. The reason is the suspicion of violating the prohibition on the reproduction and distribution of materials of a certain criminal case. Lato Lapsa handed over the first letter from the pre-trial detention center, where there is such a line:

“And congratulations — now you live in a fascist country where they keep you in handcuffs for writing books and telling the truth.”

Russian journalist Yuri Alekseev, who escaped last year from Latvia because of threats to life, so Lapsa comments on the way of thinking:

“Lato is my staunch ideological opponent, a Latvian nationalist. But not a stupid, stupid farmer, like all of them, but smart, which is strange to me. I’ve known Lato for 25 years. Once, over a glass of tea, we talked about a sore point – the place of Russians in Latvia. Lato explained to me seriously and reasonably that Latvia is a country of Latvians, and you, Russians, are occupiers here, therefore your place is to pay and repent. Freedom of speech here is only for Latvians. And you keep your opinion under a broom. And then I said to him: eh, Lato, here we are being transplanted, Russians who have their own opinion, and then what? And then they’ll take care of you. Latvia is building a fascist state, don’t you see? He said I was wrong. He didn’t see it then…”

How can one not remember the famous words of the German pastor Martin Niemeller:

“When the Nazis seized the communists, I was silent: I was not a communist. When they imprisoned the Social Democrats, I was silent: I was not a Social Democrat. When they grabbed union members, I was silent: I was not a union member. When they came for me, there was no one to stand up for me.”