latvia - freedom housefreedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/nit 2018 latvia.pdflatvia, with 450...
Post on 11-Jul-2020
7 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
Latvia by Daunis Auers
Capital: Riga
Population: 1.96 million
GNI/capita, PPP: $26,090
Source: World Bank World Development Indicators.
Nations in Transit Ratings and Averaged Scores
NIT Edition
20
09
20
10
20
11
20
12
20
13
20
14
20
15
20
16
20
17
20
18
National Democratic
Governance 2.50 2.50 2.25 2.25 2.25 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00
Electoral Process 2.00 2.00 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75
Civil Society 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 2.00
Independent Media 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00
Local Democratic
Governance 2.25 2.25 2.25 2.25 2.25 2.25 2.25 2.25 2.25 2.25
Judicial Framework
and Independence 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.50 1.50
Corruption 3.25 3.25 3.50 3.25 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00
Democracy Score 2.18 2.18 2.14 2.11 2.07 2.07 2.07 2.07 2.04 2.07
NOTE: The ratings reflect the consensus of Freedom House, its academic advisers, and the author(s) of this report.
The opinions expressed in this report are those of the author(s). The ratings are based on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1
representing the highest level of democratic progress and 7 the lowest. The Democracy Score is an average of ratings
for the categories tracked in a given year.
2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Latvia continued on its path to becoming a stable north European democracy in 2017. Indeed, there was
some celebration early in the year when Latvian MEP Artis Pabriks tweeted that the United Nations (UN)
had reclassified the Baltic states as “North European,” rather than “East European”, although it later
emerged that the UN classification had actually been in place for over 20 years.1 Debates on reform of
key policy areas–taxation, health care, and the education system–dominated much of the year. Municipal
elections in June passed without incident and the OECD’s first annual report on Latvia since its accession
to the organization the previous year praised Latvia’s recent reforms.2
Relations with Russia remained frosty, especially during Russia’s extensive Zapad military
exercises on Latvia’s border in September, although NATO forces continued to expand their presence in
Latvia, with 450 Canadian troops deploying to Latvia to lead a 1,000-person strong battlegroup that also
included soldiers from Albania, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, and Spain.3 Domestic military capacity was raised
through increased spending on defense (up to 1.7 percent of GDP and projected to finally reach the NATO
recommendation of 2 percent in 2018).4 In March, the Latvian parliament adopted amendments to the
Commercial Law and the National Security Law that give the government a veto over the whole or partial
sale of companies that have “strategic importance” to Latvia, such as those in the energy and “electronic
information” (TV and radio) sectors.
However, enduring weaknesses in Latvia’s political system have not disappeared. In late spring,
the liberal weekly current affairs magazine Ir published a series of leaked transcripts of conversations
secretly taped in a luxury hotel from 2009 and 2011 between several leading influential political figures,
known as “oligarchs” in Latvia.5 Although some of the tapes were recorded almost a decade ago, they
featured several government ministers and other prominent political figures. Furthermore, Latvia’s party
system returned to a period of flux and uncertainty as political parties in the liberal center began fracturing,
merging, and being born anew in preparation for the October 2018 parliamentary elections.6
In addition to a substantial reform of the tax law, the Education Ministry merged the Riga
Pedagogical Academy (RPIVA) with the University of Latvia as the first step in downsizing Latvia’s 55
higher education institutions to a more manageable number.7 Although RPIVA staff fiercely opposed the
reform, it went ahead on schedule. The education minister, Kārlis Šadurskis, pursued further plans to close
small rural schools, as well as to gradually phase out minority language schools in the state sector. In the
early months of the year, the Latvian parliament finally set up a small Research Unit to provide research
support for deputies.8 Sweeping reforms of the public sector were also announced, but then stalled. In
January, the head of Latvia’s civil service, Martins Krieviņš, announced plans to reform the civil service
by cutting the number of civil servants by 7-10 percent over 2017-2019, beginning primarily through a
hiring freeze. Salaries would also rise, so that senior civil servants could earn up to €5,000 ($5,800) a month,
making their salaries more competitive with the private sector. Other savings will also be achieved by
centralizing certain functions, such as accounting and IT services. Although Krieviņš resigned in March
following the prime minister’s accusation that he was centralizing too much power, his successor planned
to continue the reform.9
President Raimonds Vējonis, back to full strength after health scares in recent years, proposed
granting automatic citizenship to the children of non-citizens born in Latvia. However, parliament rejected
this proposal after the National Alliance threatened to bring down the governing coalition.10
A working group at the Latvian parliament proposed two possible reforms to the current
controversial system of electing the president, in which an absolute majority of 100 parliamentarians elects
the position. One option is based on the Estonian system—an Electoral College of 200 worthies consisting
of 100 parliamentary deputies and another 100 local government leaders—while the other calls for the
direct election of the president by citizens. However, there have been intermittent discussions on reforming
the election of the president for a quarter century, and history indicates that lawmakers are unlikely to accept
radical reforms to the presidency. The working group also proposed enhancing the powers of the president
by giving the office the power to nominate the State Controller (chief auditor), Ombudsman, Governor of
3
the Bank of Latvia, and anticorruption chief; it also proposed an impeachment process. These proposals
spent much of the year being debated–or arguably bogged down–in various parliamentary committees.11
Finally, in a surprising turn of events, parliamentary deputies representing the government coalition
eradicated the “deputy quotas” that attracted significant negative attention in recent years. In previous years,
every parliamentary deputy was allocated a sum of money from the annual government budget that could
be spent on various projects—typically connected to specific NGOs or rural towns and villages—supported
by individual lawmakers. In 2016, the parliament had allocated about €28 million ($32.5 million), or
€280,000 ($325,500) per deputy, to these quotas. The coalition parties eradicated the practice in 2017.12
Score Changes:
Civil Society declined from 1.75 to 2.00 due to the increased role of illiberal groups, and long-
term issues of the civil sector being unable to achieve financial sustainability.
As a result, Latvia’s Democracy Score declined from 2.04 to 2.07.
Outlook for 2018: Parliamentary elections in October will dominate Latvian politics in 2018. However, it
will also mark the centenary of Latvia’s independence, and the calendar will be full of various cultural and
political activities marking the event, culminating in the Latvian Song and Dance Festival in July. Ethnic
tensions will rise as the government enacts a school reform that will significantly cut the number of hours
of non-Latvian language teaching in public schools. Latvia’s large nonresident banking sector will continue
to face increased domestic and international scrutiny, a trend that began with Latvia’s negotiations to join
the OECD in 2016.
4
MAIN REPORT
National Democratic Governance
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
2.50 2.50 2.25 2.25 2.25 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00
Latvia’s three-party governing coalition (Union of Greens and Farmers, Unity, and the National
Alliance) has governed since the last parliamentary election in 2014 and experienced a stable, even
productive, year in office. Prime Minister Māris Kučinskis, who many observers had initially described
as a conservative or even reactionary figure upon taking office in January 2016, skillfully introduced a
significant reform of Latvia’s tax system and his cabinet began discussing significant reforms to the
health and education sectors. However, the Unity party continued to fragment over the course of 2017,
with Unity parliamentarians resigning from the party but typically remaining in the party group and
voting with the party. The opposition pro-Russian-language Social Democratic Party “Harmony”
collected the largest share of votes in the Riga municipal election and saw the city’s mayor, Harmony
leader Nils Ušakovs, returned to office for a third term. Ušakovs continued to modernize the party,
allowing a cooperation agreement with Vladimir Putin’s United Russia to lapse and then bringing the
party into the Party of European Socialists, the European Parliament grouping for national social-
democratic parties from EU states, in November 2017.
Two decades after a flat tax was first adopted in 1997, from 2018 Latvia will have a progressive tax
system that aims to tackle growing income inequality with income tax rates of 20 percent, 23 percent,
and 31.4 percent. The new tax code also tackles low rates of business investment by replacing the
corporate tax rate of 15 percent with a zero percent tax on profits reinvested into the company and 20
percent on profits that are taken out of the company.13 Economists and business leaders are divided on
the expected impact of the reforms on the Latvian economy, but the prime minister and his finance
minister, Dana Reizniece-Ozola (also from the Union of Greens and Farmers), received praise for their
ability to enact the reform.14 Moreover, the reform process saw unusually wide and public consultations
with trade unions, business associations, and academics, as well as detailed competing proposals and
comments from the World Bank, OECD, the European Commission, and domestic think-tanks.
This growing reputation for steady political management has seen the Union of Greens and Farmers
remain the most popular of the three coalition parties throughout 2017.15 The Union of Greens and
Farmers’ popularity remained steady despite the “Oligarch Transcripts” scandal engulfing Aivars
Lembergs, who the Green/Farmers nominated as a potential prime minister in the past and who has
long been recognized as the most influential figure within the party.16
The radical right populist National Alliance party, another member of the governing coalition, also
experienced a solid 2017. The party regularly mobilized its electorate by criticizing the European
Union’s refugee relocation program and also successfully argued for more spending on “demographic”
policies—essentially increased child and other benefits for young families—in cabinet debates on the
2018 budget.17
In contrast, however, the third coalition partner Unity continued its long-term decline. Many rank-and-
file members have resigned and the party owes advertising agencies €120,000 ($140,000), back taxes
of €19,000 ($22,000), as well as €12,000 ($14,000) in salaries to staff in its central office.18 Most
damagingly, five Unity parliamentary deputies resigned from the party (but continued to vote with the
party) in the summer. They eventually co-founded a new liberal party, Movement For!, that will be in
direct competition with Unity for moderate voters in the October 2018 elections.19 In August, the
remaining rump of Unity members elected a new party chairman, Economics Minister Arvils
Ašeradens, a serious technocrat and respected former businessman, to reform and lead the party into
5
the election. In October, Ašeradens announced that he was stepping down from his ministerial position
to head his party’s parliamentary faction and focus on the run-up to the election, although he later
backtracked, deciding that staying in post would allow both him and Unity to maintain a higher public
and media profile.20
The breakup of Unity was only part of a broader fracturing of the political center. In addition to the
breakaway of Unity deputies, the party must will compete for centrist votes against the anticorruption
New Conservative Party and the Latvian Regional Alliance/Latvia’s Development coalition, which
both exceeded expectations in June’s municipal election in Riga with nine seats each on the 60-seat
Riga council. The Regional Alliance is a coalition of small, regional parties from Latvia’s smaller
municipalities, while Latvia’s Development is a small, metropolitan liberal party led by a former senior
civil servant. Moreover, a small populist party that goes by the acronymn KPV LV (Who Owns the
State) is likely to attract plenty of votes from Latvia’s large disillusioned economic diaspora in the UK
and Ireland. The leader of Latvia’s Development has called for all the centrist parties to unite into a
common bloc. A number of these parties are likely to heed this call, as they all struggled to reach the 5
percent barrier in polling in 2017. Polling in December placed the parties in the following order:
Harmony 20.7 percent; Union of Greens and Farmers 14.3; National Alliance 7.3; Regional Alliance
3.6; Unity 3.5; New Christian Party 3.0; My Heart for Latvia 1.8; KPV LV, 1.5; and Movement For!
1.5.21
The pro-Russian-language Harmony led the polls throughout 2017, boosted by a virtual monopoly on
the 25-30 percent of Latvian citizens that identified as Russian speakers. Indeed, in October party leader
Nils Ušakovs made a play to attract more ethnically Latvian voters by allowing a bilateral cooperation
agreement with Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party to lapse, and simultaneously applying for full
membership of the Party of European Socialists.22 These steps were part of a project to reshape the
party in order to attract Latvians voters with left-wing views. The transformation was not without risk,
however, as the more virulently Russian nationalist wing of the party, such as European Parliamentarian
Andrejs Mamikins (elected to the European Parliament on the Harmony ticket but not a member of the
party), have criticized the move.
Electoral Process
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
2.00 2.00 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75
The main electoral event of 2017 was the local government election in June, which was also seen as a
warm-up for the national parliamentary election in October 2018. Pro-Russian-language party
Harmony scraped a bare majority of seats in the capital city of Riga in coalition with its governing
partner, An Honor to Serve Riga. The campaign focused on ethnic relations and accusations of
municipal corruption and mismanagement, as well as the balance of relations with the US and Russia,
themes that are likely to dominate the national elections in 2018.
Almost 9,000 candidates competed for votes in 119 local governments (110 municipalities and 9 cities)
in municipal elections that passed without incident.23 The turnout of 50.39 percent was significantly
higher than the 45.99 percent turnout in the previous local elections in 2013. With the exception of the
capital Riga, which dominates the national economy and has one-third of the entire national population,
campaigns were primarily fought on local issues. Most of the largest cities in Latvia reelected their
incumbent mayors, although smaller towns saw contests that were more competitive. The exception
was the city of Daugavpils, which elected a fractured city council that has already seen two mayors in
the six months following the June elections.24
Much media interest was focused on Riga and the other major cities. Incumbent mayors have
consolidated power, however, with many having held office since the 1990s, and the election brought
6
few surprises. Aivars Lembergs has been mayor of Ventspils since the late 1980s and was once again
reelected, as were mayors in Liepaja and Jelgava. Similarly, Nils Ušakovs (Harmony Social
Democracy) won a third term in office in the capital city of Riga. The reelection of incumbent mayors
reflected their significant advantages in utilizing local government instruments—such as free weekly
newspapers or public celebrations—to advertise the achievements of their governments.
The governing coalition in Riga of Harmony and An Honor to Serve Riga won 50.82 percent of the
vote and 32 of 60 seats in the Riga legislature.25 Harmony successfully attracted the support of
pensioners with free public transport, healthcare co-payments, and other social benefits. Opposition
deputies, however, argued that Harmony had used municipal resources, including free newspapers and
concerts, to advertise themselves, placing the opposition at an unfair disadvantage.26
These opportunities may be more limited in the future. In October, the European Court of Human Rights
(ECtHR) heard a case concerning the practice of municipalities publishing free newspapers that include
advertisements, based on a complaint from a regional newspaper in Latvia, which argued that the lower
advertising rates offered by the free municipal paper constituted unfair competition.27 The following
month, Latvia’s Administrative Court ruled to prohibit municipal media from accepting commercial
advertising.28
Four other parties were also elected to the Riga municipality legislature. In addition to National Alliance
and Unity, the hitherto marginal New Conservative party surprisingly won nine seats with an
anticorruption platform that was given extra bite by the recruitment of two former Latvian
anticorruption agency officers to its ranks. An electoral coalition of Latvian Regional Union/Latvia’s
Development also won nine seats, but was disappointed with its performance after a lavish campaign
based around Martiņš Bondars, a clean-cut, US-educated parliamentary deputy who had unsuccessfully
campaigned for the presidency in 2015.29
Two of the three governing coalition parties increased the share of municipalities under their control,
with the Union of Greens and Farmers coming out on top in 33 of Latvia’s 119 municipalities
(compared to 22 in 2013) and the National Alliance in 8 municipalities (6 in 2013). In contrast, the
third coalition partner, Unity, saw the number of municipalities it controlled drop from 10 to 6, although
it did manage to beat the 5 percent threshold in the Riga municipality, winning 6.26 percent of the vote
and four seats.30
There were no changes to electoral or party laws in 2017. However, earlier changes to the law on
political parties in the first half of 2016 meant that only parties founded one year before the election,
and with at least 500 members, can compete in parliamentary elections.31 This explains the brief flurry
of party formation in the late summer of 2017.
Civil Society
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 2.00
Latvia’s biggest civil society organizations actively engaged with the state throughout 2017, whether
through consulting, criticizing, or discussing the major reforms initiated by the government, or in public
protests following the publication of the “Oligarch Transcripts” in late spring. Illiberal groups continued
seeking to gain traction through public actions, and NGOs were typically viewed as partisan rather than
representing a public interest. Furthermore, no great progress was made in tackling the two key
challenges that have long dogged the sector–low levels of membership and poor finances. Indeed, the
tax reform, in which business associations and trade unions played such an important part, will actually
see cuts to tax benefits for donations to NGOs.
The most active and prominent civil organizations in Latvia represent business and labor interests. The
Employers’ Confederation of Latvia (LDDK), which represents the biggest businesses in Latvia that
7
employ about 45 percent of Latvia’s private sector workforce, and the Latvian Chamber of Commerce
and Industry (LTRK), which represents smaller businesses, were both active in the tax reform debate.
After almost a full year of discussion, LTRK broke ranks with LDDK and refused to support the final
tax proposals, arguing that the legislation would have a negative impact on Latvia’s competitiveness in
the Information Communication Technology (ICT) and finance sectors by raising, rather than lowering,
labor taxes.32 The Free Trade Union Confederation (LBOS) supported the tax reforms. Because LBOS
and LDDK are the government’s two official social partners in the national tripartite council, the
government put LTRK’s concerns to the side.33 The tax reform debates also saw Latvia’s nascent
economic think tanks, scholars, and universities engage in public debate, a positive development.34
Several NGOs and political parties, including the Latvian branch of Transparency International, Delna,
and the New Conservative party, rallied their members and the public to participate in several public
demonstrations decrying the inactivity of the courts and prosecution service following the publication
of the “Oligarch Transcripts.” Several hundred people gathered outside both the General Prosecutor’s
office and the Riga Castle, home to the president. Indeed, the president was greeted by whistling and
catcalls when he came outside to speak with the demonstrators.35 Staff and students of the Riga
Pedagogical University held other, smaller demonstrations, protesting its forced merger with the
University of Latvia, and calling for a pay increase for schoolteachers.36 Public protests remained small
in the number of demonstrators but appeared to be increasing in frequency in 2017.
In the first weekend of July, the Lampa Festival, a Nordic-style “democracy festival”, grew in size,
scope, and attendees as it celebrated its third year of operation, despite experiencing its first bout of
rainy and damp weather. The two-day festival saw different speakers participate in 200 roundtables and
debates, watched by more than 10,000 participants.37 However, to an extent, it was also another victim
of Latvia’s culture wars. The festival was organized by Dots, which is the successor organization to the
Soros Foundation in Latvia. As a result, nationalists and conservatives largely boycotted the event, with
the more extreme conspiracy theorists even arguing that the festival was another tool used by George
Soros to brainwash Latvia’s youth with liberal values. This points towards a fundamental problem in
Latvian society: NGOs are typically seen as partisan and representing rather narrow interests, rather
than providing some good for society as a whole.
Indeed, illiberal and nationalist organizations continued to use the European refugee crisis to rally their
members and promote a nationalist agenda. In September, the Guards of the Fatherland (Tēvijas Sargi),
a small paramilitary organization whose members pull on boots and military fatigues and occasionally
“patrol” parts of Riga that have a large Russian-speaking population, visited Mucenieki, where Latvia’s
refugees are based.38 They used social media to share a picture of themselves ominously staring at the
refugee camp, stating that they had had a “little walk” around the area. What happened next was not
what they had expected. Twitter and Facebook were used to share various memes of the group staring
not at the refugee camp, but at a My Little Pony doll, a male stripper, a urinal, and so on. Laughter and
comedy was used to demean the Guards of the Fatherland, who reacted angrily–particularly decrying
the memes with a homosexual undercurrent.39
While the situation of LGBT people has improved in recent years, Latvia’s LGBT community
continued to face discrimination and legal challenges in 2017. According to ILGA-Europe, Latvia is
among the least gay-friendly places in Europe—despite the fact that the country’s foreign minister was
among the very first politicians, in 2014, to come out as gay in the region. The country does not
recognize gay marriage or any form of partnership for homosexual couples, and a 2015 amendment to
the Education Law prohibits “propaganda of degrading or immoral activities.”40 The Baltic Pride parade
takes place in Riga every three years; ahead of the 2018 parade Valentīns Jeremejevs, the head of the
Green Party’s Riga office, launched an online initiative to ban the event, calling the participants “sick
people.”41
8
Independent Media
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00 2.00
In 2017 Latvia had 6 printed national newspapers, compared to 15 in 1991.42 However, the internet
continued to grow as the main source of news for Latvians, with 79 percent of the population regularly
using the net.43 In September 2017, the internet news portal Delfi.lv had an average of 317,563 visitors
a day (each spending almost 24 minutes on the site), three times the combined daily circulation of all
six national daily newspapers in Latvia.44 Indeed, when asked to name the three media sources most
often used to gain information on Latvian politics, only two percent of the public mentioned the highest-
ranked written daily newspaper (Diena), compared to 22 percent that named Delfi.lv.45 Television
channels have also been in decline as younger viewers switch over to on-demand services such as Netflix
or their Latvian equivalents.
Latvia’s printed media has been in a death spiral of rapidly falling sales, readership, and diminishing
journalistic quality since the 1990s.46 This trend continued throughout 2017 as all the major newspapers
in Latvia continued to suffer large financial losses, with the exception of Latvijas Avīze, which maintains
a strong regional readership. Although the parliament elected a new National Radio, Television and
Electronic Media Council in January, it remained as fractious and politicized as its predecessor.
Nevertheless, the Latvian government has begun to respond to these challenges by funding a number of
journalistic projects from a half-million euro fund created by the Ministry of Culture to support quality
journalism in Latvia.47
The release of the “Oligarch Transcripts” detailed oligarchs’ attempts to influence, seize control, and
ultimately tame Latvia’s media. The transcripts revealed former deputy prime minister Ainars Šlesers
discussing his takeover of the liberal Diena daily newspaper, dismissing journalists and editors, and how
this had resulted in more favourable coverage of his party.48 Ventspils mayor Aivars Lembergs discussed
his ownership of Medija Nams, which controls the Neatkariga Rita Avize daily newspaper, and how he
used his influence to persuade government-controlled enterprises to purchase advertising space in the
newspaper.49 Šlesers and Lembergs also discussed attempts to remove “difficult” journalists from
Latvian public television and radio and contemplate how to introduce a Latvian version of Putin’s
“power vertical’ to quell public opposition.50
Fake news has also been in the headlines in Latvia. A new portal called nozagts.com (stolen.com in
English) was launched last year and attracted quite a bit of publicity, in part because of allegations it
was linked to Harmony. Moreover, there were accusations in the Latvian public media that Riga
municipality resources–where Harmony holds the mayor’s office–have been used to finance the
activities of the portal, although the allegation was not proven.51
While this seems to paint a rather grim picture of Latvia’s media landscape, several more positive
developments balanced the Latvian media in 2017. The independent reporting by Ir magazine
journalists, which led to the publication of the “Oligarch Transcripts”, raised awareness of the opaque
ownership structures of Latvia’s media. Re:Baltica, an investigative journalism outlet based in Riga, has
been successful in attracting both private international and public domestic funds to undertake reporting
of Latvia’s school system, the impact of negative demography in Latvia’s rural regions, and other
issues.52 It disseminates its stories over multiple platforms using a mix of traditional and video reporting.
Public and private television news shows also undertook investigative reportage–one channel placed a
young news reporter undercover in a sushi restaurant to uncover illicit cash payments to staff.53 Online
news portals, which built up their readership by providing free news reports from media agencies, have
begun to develop their own content and provide more quality journalism. Delfi.lv has taken the lead in
this regard, providing extensive reporting on the challenges facing numerous Latvian towns and cities
in advance of the June local government election, and publishing a series of long-reads on the Latvian
economy written in cooperation with a domestic think-tank.54 Delfi.lv also created a political discussion
9
show hosted by Latvia’s leading political interviewer, Janis Domburs, that it streamed live and later
archived on its web site.55
Much of this new investigative reporting and new content has been funded by the first wave of
government-financed projects for the media handled by the Ministry of Culture. Half a million euros in
funding was dispersed by the State Culture Capital Foundation for 16 different media projects (from 56
applications).56
Oversight of the media remained contested and far too politicized in 2017. In January, the parliament
elected four new members (out of five) to the National Electronic Mass Media Council (NEPLP),
responsible for overseeing the media.57 All four newly elected members were initially seen as politically
independent and have extensive experience in the media. However, just six months later, in July, Latvian
public radio employees signed a letter of complaint against two members of the Council, arguing that
they were applying political pressure to Latvia’s public radio and that this threatened the media’s
political independence.58
Compared to the highly politicized parliamentary votes of recent years, the appointment of the new
NEPLP members seemed to have been guided by professional competence rather than party allegiance.
However, rows have already erupted between the Council and public radio on the extent to which certain
radio channels should broadcast Latvian rather than international music. In September, the Council fired
the head of Latvian Radio before swiftly moving to appoint a new chief with more extensive private
sector experience, an act that the Latvian Journalists’ Association strongly criticized.59 This conflict and
flux did little to promote faith in the public media.
Local Democratic Governance
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
2.25 2.25 2.25 2.25 2.25 2.25 2.25 2.25 2.25 2.25
Local government reform has been close to the top of the Latvian political agenda for more than two
decades, but little progress towards further reform occurred in 2017. A major territorial reform in 2009
cut the number of local governments from 452 to 119. However, the number still remained too high
during the year. Thirty-nine municipalities have a population below 4000, which, according to the Law
on Administrative Territories and Populated Areas, is below the minimum for an organized
municipality.60
The June local elections dominated local governance in 2017: first, with preparation for the elections,
and later, with political shuffling as new coalitions formed. The elections passed without incident and
local governments returned to providing services for their residents. Debates on reducing the number of
local governments from the current 119 were rather muted, but demographic trends that show long-term
population decline in all municipalities outside the Riga region mean that this issue will return to the
agenda. As the rural population aged, and young people flocked to Riga or move abroad, the tax base of
many of Latvia’s rural regions diminished, making the need to further pool resources inevitable.
Nevertheless, local governments fought to maintain their autonomy, opposing, for example, proposals
to close or merge the many small rural primary and secondary schools scattered across Latvia.61 Local
government leaders were also concerned with the uncertain future of the European Union’s Cohesion
Funds, which are often the only investment instruments available to smaller local governments.
The place and role of the capital city of Riga in the Latvian economy appeared on the political agenda
in the second half of the year. The city dominates the Latvian economy, yet poor political relations
between the mayor and the national government mean that the city has only reached 70 percent of its
economic potential, according to the OECD in its annual report on Latvia published in September.62
This is an entrenched conflict. The pro-Russian-language Harmony party has been excluded from
national government coalitions ever since it was formed. Indeed, no Russophone party has ever served
10
in a Latvian governing coalition. However, Harmony has held the mayor’s office in Riga since 2009.
As a result, there were often tensions between Riga and the national government, and these tensions
were often based around issues of language, education, and culture. In the months leading up to the local
elections, the Minister of Education, Karlis Šadurskis (Unity), organized a press conference where he
presented research indicating that schools in Riga were underperforming in examination results.63 The
mayor, Nils Ušakovs, responded with a press conference in which he claimed that this was not the case,
and alleged that the Minister had pinpointed schools in Riga that were “ghettoes”, where grades really
were below the average, while other schools in Riga were outperforming those elsewhere in Latvia.
Ušakovs described the research as “fake” and “cheating”.64 In a strange move, the Riga local authority
later decided to reduce the size of in-coming high school classes in Riga’s best-performing schools. The
Minister claimed that this will reduce parent choice and the quality of education in Riga.65
The only major city without a clear-cut result in the June local elections was Daugavpils, the biggest
city in the eastern region of Latgale, which has a large ethnic Russian community. Two different people,
from two different parties, have already held office there in the six months since the election.66
Language was also on the political agenda. The Russian-speaking mayor of Riga, Ušakovs, often used
his social media to communicate with his electorate in Russian. In February he also spoke Russian in a
question-and-answer session with some young Russian-speaking schoolchildren visiting the Riga
Municipal Council building, which led to him being fined €50 ($58) by the State Latvian Language
Center.67 In April, the radical right government member National Alliance seized on these disputes
between Ušakovs and the Latvian Language Center to draft legislation that would lead to the suspension
of public figures who are repeatedly fined by the Center, as Ušakovs now has been.68 This was red meat
to the nationalists that support the National Alliance. However, it was also red meat to the Russophones
that support Harmony, and further complicated cooperation with the national government.
However, the OECD’s recommendation that relations between national and Riga authorities must be
developed in order to increase economic growth has somewhat concentrated minds. Politicians on both
sides have admitted that they have no formal channels of communication, and that this complicates large
public investments and long-term planning in the capital.69 Nevertheless, an understanding was reached
between all sides that a wealthier Riga would have a positive impact on the Latvian economy as a whole.
Riga already contributes more than half of the funds in the Municipal Equalization funds, which
redistributes resources between 15 of Latvia’s wealthiest local governments and 104 poorer ones.70
Discussions on cooperation have already taken place between the mayor, the prime minister, and the
economics minister, with transport links and the development of the left bank of the River Daugava as
a higher education and research zone among the common projects discussed.
Judicial Framework and Independence
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.75 1.50 1.50
Latvia’s judicial framework did not see any major reforms in 2017. A survey from 2016 found the
percentage of Latvians rating the independence of their courts as good or very good is below the
EU average, 42 percent versus 52 percent.71 This was largely a result of lengthy court cases and
several high-profile instances of judicial corruption. For example, the corruption and bribery case
against Aivars Lembergs, who was reelected mayor of Ventspils in June, celebrated its ten-year
anniversary in 2017 year and was still awaiting a first instance judgement at year’s end.
The European Commission’s annual EU Justice Scorecard, which gives a comparative overview of
the efficiency, quality, and independence of the justice systems of EU member states, indicated a
gradual improvement in the justice sector in Latvia.72 The length of time it takes the system to make
11
a first instance ruling continued to fall to approximately 170 days, although Latvia rose two places
in the EU rankings to 14 of 28 member states. The report also praised Latvia’s justice system for
the availability of information about, and potential for engagement with, the justice system by
electronic means, such as submitting petitions online, corresponding with the court by email, and
so on. However, the report also highlighted that Latvia is 18th among EU states in per capita
spending on the justice system, at approximately €50 ($58) per inhabitant. Moreover,
Eurobarometer data quoted in the report also indicated that a small but growing number of Latvians
see the justice system as being independent in its decision-making. However, a domestic opinion
poll in January 2017 found that 55 percent of Latvians believed that courts do not hear cases in a
fair and impartial way.73
This is perhaps not surprising in the context of judges on trial for corruption. For example, in
October the Latvian parliament agreed to allow criminal proceedings to be started against a District
Court judge in a case being brought by the anticorruption bureau and involving an alleged bribe of
€5,000 ($5,800) and the leaking of classified information, although the former charge was later
dropped.74
In June, Latvian police detained several prominent insolvency administrators, who faced extortion
and money laundering charges. Journalists and foreign investors have criticized insolvency
administrators for a number of years; indeed, in 2016, the Foreign Investors Council in Latvia
(FICIL) claimed that the Latvian economy might have lost up to €750 million ($922.7 million)
between 2008 and 2014 due to insolvency abuse.75 Insolvency administrators are accused of failing
to adequately report on their activities, using recovery rates that are well below international norms,
and of colluding with specific judges. One journalistic investigation found that just a handful of
judges had been allocated a suspiciously high number of insolvency cases, after insolvent firms had
been allowed to change their legal address to a potentially more amenable legal jurisdiction, and
that these same judges had also permitted a high number of infractions by the administrators.76
Journalists reported that some insolvency administrators were earning millions of euros a year and
were major donors to Latvian political parties, particularly the National Alliance, which even
appointed an insolvency administrator as the party’s general secretary (although he has since left
the post).77 Following this crackdown on prominent administrators, the Ministry of Justice and the
Insolvency Administration (MNA) proposed mooted reforms to the insolvency process that will
make the allocation of insolvency cases more independent, thus making it difficult for insolvency
administrators to collude with judges.78
Finally, in an embarrassing turn of events, Janis Maizītis, the chief of Latvia’s Secret Service (the
Constitutional Defense Bureau), was burgled and had his private laptop stolen, although it was later
retrieved by the police.79 While Maizītis claims that no sensitive data was taken, it is somewhat of
an embarrasment that Latvia’s spy chief can have his personal home burgled and his personal
effects stolen.
Corruption
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
3.25 3.25 3.50 3.25 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00 3.00
Public perceptions of high-level political and administrative corruption have long blighted Latvian
society and politics. Nevertheless, debates about corruption in 2017 focused around historic cases.
The year saw the tenth anniversary of the arrest of the mayor of Ventspils, Aivars Lembergs, for
corruption, bribery and money-laundering among other charges, as well as the public outcry
following the release of the “Oligarch Tapes” and the opening of a court case against the former
chief of Latvian Railways. However, 2017 saw few new cases of corruption opened. Corruption
12
trends in Latvia have been positive for a number of years–indeed, in October the political party
financing law was amended to limit annual individual donations to 30 percent of their income.80 At
the same time, a whistleblower protection bill has been bogged down in parliament since March.81
In February, police chief Ints Ķuzis announced several significant reforms to the Traffic Police,
who have long been famed for their petty corruption.82 Ķuzis said that henceforth the two primary
roles for the Traffic Police will be to assist in accidents and help out during rush hour, with traffic
police to carry out fewer random traffic stops and no longer check motorists’ speed. The traffic
police would be banned from carrying more than €30 ($35) in cash on their person, and there will
be more rotation between the different parts of the Traffic Police.
Discussion of corruption nonetheless dominated much of the summer of 2017 following a weekly
current affairs magazine’s publication of leaked, covertly recorded conversation transcripts made
by Latvia’s Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) investigating allegations of
political corruption between 2009 and 2011.83 The transcripts captured the public imagination both
because of the crass, colorful language used by the interlocutors but also because the voices on tape
were Latvia’s three most famous “oligarchs:” former prime minister Andris Skele, former deputy
prime minister Ainars Slesers, and the mayor of the wealthy oil-transit port city of Ventspils, Aivars
Lembergs.
The three were recorded gossiping about their colleagues in parliament, debating the pros and cons
of a potentially controversial government coalition with Harmony Center (as Harmony was called
at that time), and discussing various open and secret business interests, as well as their attempts to
tame Latvia’s written and electronic media. One transcript seemed to feature the Minister of
Agriculture Janis Duklavs trying to sell a piece of land near Riga port in which he had an undeclared
financial interest.84 Parliament caved in to public pressure and set up an investigative committee to
investigate the case further, ensuring that the transcripts will remain on the political agenda as
Latvia gears up for parliamentary elections in October 2018.85 The transcripts’ continuing presence
in Latvia was aided by the fact Inguna Sudraba, the leader of the My Heart for Latvia party, who
herself is mentioned in the oligarch transcripts as a potential prime minister of whom the Russian
government would heartily approve, heads the investigative committee. Anticorruption experts,
including the editor of Ir, have stated that Sudraba is unsuited to the post and may well torpedo the
committee’s work.86
In June, the Latvian parliament finally elected a new head of the KNAB, more than half a year after
the last head was forced from the post following the search committee’s failure to nominate him
for a second term and all other candidates being ruled out as unqualified.87 The new head has
impeccable credentials: Jekabs Straume has spent more than 16 years working in military counter-
intelligence, including international missions in Afghanistan, and is highly rated by Latvia’s
international partners, including the United States.88 There is optimism that he may be able to renew
Latvia’s anticorruption agency after several years of infighting and drift. However, he quickly put
a halt to public optimism that he would use the oligarch transcripts to bring mighty politicians to
heel. Having reviewed the documents, Straume stated that the KNAB had acted correctly and it
was not possible to make a criminal case against the interlocutors in the transcripts.89
In September, a district court in Limbaži finally began the trial of Uģis Magonis, the former chief
of Latvian Railways, who was arrested in the summer of 2015 and accused of having received a
€500,000 ($580,000) bribe from an Estonian businessman in return for arranging that Latvian
Railways buy four ageing locomotives from his business.90 Equally significant, in June the
Economic Crimes Prevention Office of the state police initiated two separate criminal processes
against a group of insolvency administrators, who, in recent years, had created the aura of being
above the law (see Judicial Framework and Independence).91 The administrators were accused of
participating in money laundering and extortion.
AUTHOR: Daunis Auers
13
Daunis Auers is Associate Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Latvia, and the author of
Comparative Politics and Government of the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the 21st
Century, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2015.
1 Leonid Berhsidsky, “Why the Baltics want to move to another part of Europe,” Bloomberg, 10 January 2017,
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-01-10/why-the-baltics-want-to-move-to-another-part-of-europe 2 OECD Economic Surveys, Latvia, September 2017, http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-
Management/oecd/economics/oecd-economic-surveys-latvia-2017_eco_surveys-lva-2017-en#.WehJqDBx02w 3 “Canadians Latvia-bound to lead NATO battle group.” CTV News. https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/canadians-
latvia-bound-to-lead-nato-battle-group-1.3451539 4 Reid Standish, “The ominous, massive military exercises in Eastern Europe, The Atlantic, 18 September 2017,
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/09/zapad-russia-baltics-lithuania-estonia-finland-trumpnato-
eu/540126/. “Bergmanis pledges to make sure that Latvia honors commitment to raising defense budget to 2% of
GDP,” LETA, http://www.leta.lv/eng/defence_matters_eng/defence_matters_eng/news/133C5E70-F63D-E9C7-
89B9-A45B6E6E9CF7/ 5 “Oligarhu sarunas viesnīcā Rīdzene” [“Oligarch conversations in the Hotel Ridzene”], Ir, June 2017.
http://www.irlv.lv/ridzenessarunas/ 6 “Izstājas no Vienotības un piedalīsies jaunas partijas dibināšanā [They leave Unity and take par tin founding a new
political party]”, Latvijas Avīze, 17 July 2017, http://www.la.lv/izstajas-no-vienotibas-un-piedalisies-jaunas-
partijas-dibinasana/ 7 “LU apvienošanos ar RPIVA studentiem sola pēc iespējas nesāpīgu [The LU merger with RPIVA should be as
painless as possible]”, Diena, 11 January 2017, https://www.diena.lv/raksts/latvija/zinas/lu-apvienosanos-ar-rpiva-
studentiem-sola-pec-iespejas-nesapigu-14163613 8 Zanda Ķezbere, “Martā saks darboties Saeimas analītiskais dienests [The parliamentary research service will start
operations in March]”, Delfi, 9 January 2017, http://www.delfi.lv/news/national/politics/marta-saks-darboties-
saeimas-analitiskais-dienests.d?id=48388807 9 “Krieviņš pameta Valsts Kanceleja vadītāja amatu [Krievins quits the State Chancellery]”, Latvijas Avize, 20
March 2017, http://www.la.lv/krievins-pamet-valsts-kancelejas-vaditaja-amatu/ 10 “Latvian president’s ‘non-citizen’ solution handed back by Saeima”, LSM, 21 September 2017,
http://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/society/latvian-presidents-non-citizen-solution-handed-back-by-saeima.a250905/ 11 The report can be found on the Working Groups page on the Latvian Parliament’s portal:
http://www.saeima.lv/lv/par-saeimu/saeimas-darbs/deputatu-grupas/darba-grupa-valsts-prezidenta-pilnvaru-
iespejamai-paplasinasanai-un-ievelesanas-kartibas-izvertesana 12 “Koalīcija vienojas atteikties no deputātu kvotām [The coalition agrees to reject the deputy quotas]”, LSM, 23
August 2017, http://www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/latvija/koalicija-vienojas-atteikties-no-deputatu-kvotam-2018.gada-
budzeta-veidosana.a247639/ 13 A presentation of the new tax law can be found on the Finance Ministry’s web site:
http://www.fm.gov.lv/en/s/taxes/ 14 “Kazāks: Nodokļu reforma ir solītis pareizā virzienā [The tax reform is a step in the right direction]”, TVNET, 28
December 2017, http://www.tvnet.lv/financenet/viedokli/766565-
kazaks_nodoklu_reforma_ir_solitis_pareizaja_virziena 15 “Partiju reitingi: Saeimā iekļūtu 6 spēki; populārākā Saskaņa [“Party ratings: six forces will enter the Saeima;
most popular is Harmony]”, LSM, 27 December 2017, http://www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/latvija/partiju-reitingi-saeima-
ieklutu-6-speki-popularaka-saskana.a262298/ 16 “Lembergs piekritis būt ZZS premjera amata kandidāts [Lembergs agrees to be Union of Greens and Farmers
prime minister candidate]”, jauns.lv, 24 September 2014, http://jauns.lv/raksts/zinas/72875-lembergs-piekritis-but-
zzs-premjera-amata-kandidats 17 “Coalition pledges 32 million euros for families with many children”, LSM, 7 September 2017,
http://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/society/coalition-pledges-32m-for-families-with-many-children.a249331/ 18 Nekā Personīga, “Vienotība parādā valstij, kādam uzņēmējam un saviem darbiniekiem [Unity in debt to the state,
a businessman, and its employees]”, Skaties.lv, 10 September 2017, https://skaties.lv/zinas/latvija/neka-
personiga/vienotiba-parada-valstij-kadam-uznemejam-un-saviem-darbiniekiem/ 19 Kustība Par! [Movement For!], https://kustibapar.lv/
14
20 “Economics minister Ašeradens will stay on for a while”, LSM, 17 October 2017,
https://eng.lsm.lv/article/politics/politics/economics-minister-aseradens-will-stay-on-for-a-while.a253935/ 21 “Partiju reitingi: Saeimā iekļūtu 6 spēki; populārākā Saskaņa [Party ratings: six forces will enter the Saeima; most
popular is Harmony]”, LSM, 27 December 2017, http://www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/latvija/partiju-reitingi-saeima-
ieklutu-6-speki-popularaka-saskana.a262298/ 22 “Saskaņa izbeigusi līgumu ar Vienoto Krieviju [Harmony has terminated agreement with United Russia]”, Delfi, 9
October 2017, http://www.delfi.lv/news/national/politics/saskana-izbeigusi-ligumu-ar-vienoto-
krieviju.d?id=49315671 23 See the Latvian Central Election Commission website: https://www.cvk.lv/pub/public/31249.html 24 “Daugavpils mayor Elksnins ousted, Eigims elected”, The Baltic Course, 4 September 2017, http://www.baltic-
course.com/eng/legislation/?doc=132828 25 Election Results, Latvian Central Election Commission, http://pv2017.cvk.lv/ElectionResults 26 “National Alliance: BI-2 is Riga City Council’s attempt to finance election campaign using municipal resources”,
BNN, 15 May 2017, http://bnn-news.com/na-bi-2-is-riga-city-council-s-attempt-to-finance-election-campaign-
using-municipal-resources-165326 27 “European Court of Human Rights initiates case Bauskas Dzīve vs Latvia”, Sorainen, 11 October 2017,
http://www.sorainen.com/en/Deals/5760/european-court-of-human-rights-initiates-case-bauskas-dzive-vs-latvia 28 “Tiesa apmierina ‘Bauskas Dzīves’ prasību aizliegt pašvaldības laikrakstā publicēt reklāmas [Court satisfies the
claim of ‘Bauskas Dzives’ to ban the publication of ads in the local government newspaper]” Delfi, 23 November
2017, http://www.delfi.lv/news/national/criminal/tiesa-apmierina-bauskas-dzives-prasibu-aizliegt-pasvaldibas-
laikraksta-publicet-reklamas.d?id=49478501 29 “Bondara iznāciens [The coming of Bondars]”, Diena, 17 February 2017,
https://www.diena.lv/raksts/latvija/politika/bondara-iznaciens-14166202 30 Election Results, Latvian Central Election Commission, http://pv2017.cvk.lv/ElectionResults 31 “Saeimas un EP vēlēšanās varēs piedalīties partijas, kurās ir ne mazāk kā 500 biedru [Only parties with at least
500 members will be able to compete in European Parliament and Saeima elections]”, Saeima.lv, 3 March 2016,
http://www.saeima.lv/lv/aktualitates/saeimas-zinas/24496-saeimas-un-ep-velesanas-vares-piedalities-partijas-kuras-
ir-ne-mazak-ka-500-biedru 32 LTRK’s criticism of the tax reform proposals can be found on its website:
https://www.chamber.lv/lv/content/jaunumi/1262 33 “Sociālie partneri atbalsta nodokļu reformas virzību [Social partners support the tax reform]”, Latvian Cabinet of
Ministers, 11 July 2017, https://www.mk.gov.lv/lv/aktualitates/socialie-partneri-atbalsta-nodoklu-reformas-virzibu 34 These debates were kicked-off at a one-day “Tax Forum” on 14 December 2016, hosted by the Finance Ministry,
which featured presentations from the Bank of Latvia, Finance Ministry, World Bank, and OECD, as well
employers and business associations, academic scholars, and thinktanks. The videos of the presentations and debates
can be found on the Ministry of Finance web site:
http://www.fm.gov.lv/lv/nodoklu_reforma/nodoklu_forums_2016/; A follow-up forum was held a year later, in
December 2017: http://www.fm.gov.lv/lv/nodoklu_reforma/nodoklu_forums_2017/ 35 “Tautas sapulce par tiesiskumu izsvilpj prezidentu [Public rally on the rule of law catcalls president]”, LSM.lv, 13
July 2017, http://www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/latvija/piketetaji-pulcejas-pie-rigas-pils.a243230/ 36 “Ķārli ej mājās! RPIVA protestē pret Šadurski un reformām [Kārlis go home! RPIVA protests against Šadurskis
and his reforms]”, Delfi, 28 February 2017, http://www.delfi.lv/news/national/politics/karli-ej-majas-rpiva-proteste-
pret-sadurski-un-reformam.d?id=48562757 37 See the program here: https://www.festivalslampa.lv/ 38 “DP izvērtēs Tēvijas Sargu provokatīvās aktivitātes Muceniekos [Security police will investigate Tevijas Sargi
provocative actions in Mucenieki]”, TvNET.lv, 2 October 2017, http://www.tvnet.lv/zinas/latvija/679819-
dp_izvertes_tevijas_sargu_provokativas_aktivitates_muceniekos 39 “Tēvijas sargi kļuvuši par Tēvijas klauniem. Līderis skaidro, ko īsti nozīmē viņu pastaigas [From Guards of the
Fatherland to Clowns of the Fatherland. Movement leader explains the purpose of their walks]”, Jauns.lv, 4 October
2017, http://jauns.lv/raksts/zinas/256156-tevijas-sargi-kluvusi-par-tevijas-klauniem-lideris-skaidro-ko-isti-nozime-
vinu-pastaigas 40 ILGA Europe Annual Review 2017, “Latvia,” https://www.ilga-
europe.org/sites/default/files/Attachments/annual_review_2017_online.pdf 41 “Public initiative portal dismisses anti-pride bid”, LSM.lv, 3 January 2018,
https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/society/public-initiative-portal-dismisses-anti-pride-bid.a262942/ 42 National Library of Latvia, “Periodicals in Latvia, 2016”. http://dom.lndb.lv/data/obj/100482.html
15
43 “Latvijas iedzīvotāju medijpratība [Media knowledge of Latvia’s inhabitants]”, Latvia Ministry of Culture, June
2017,
https://www.km.gov.lv/uploads/ckeditor/files/mediju_politika/petijumi/Medijpratiba_petijuma%20rezultati_Latvijas
%20Fakti_18_07_2017.pdf 44 Ibid. 45 Ibid. 46 Klinta, Ločmele, “Latvia – Media landscape”, European Journalism Centre,
https://medialandscapes.org/country/pdf/latvia 47 “VKKF izsludina konkursus mediju atbalstam sabiedriski nozīmīga satura veidošanai un nacionālās kultūrtelpas
stiprināšanai [The National Culture capital Foundation announces a competition for financial support to important
media content that supports national culture]”, Latvia Ministry of Culture, 27 February 2017,
https://km.gov.lv/lv/mediju-politika/jaunumi/vkkf-izsludina-konkursus-mediju-atbalstam-sabiedriski-nozimiga-
satura-veidosanai-un-nacionalas-kulturtelpas-stiprinasanai-221 48 Indra Sprance, “Preses kastrēšana [Castration of the press]”, Ir, 28 June 2017, https://irir.lv/2017/6/28/preses-
kastresana 49 Ibid. 50 Ibid. 51 “Nozagts.com varētu būt Saskaņas projekts [Nozagts.com could be a Harmony project]”, Delfi.lv, 8 January 2017,
http://www.delfi.lv/news/national/politics/nozagtscom-varetu-but-saskanas-projekts-vesta-ltv.d?id=48385615 52 Many of the stories have been translated into English and can be found here: https://en.rebaltica.lv/ 53 “LTV: Tokyo City restaurants probed for tax evasion”, LSM, 29 September 2017,
https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/crime/ltv-tokyo-city-restaurants-probed-for-tax-evasion.a251912/ 54 The archive of collaborative long reads in the Latvia 2020 project can be found here:
http://www.delfi.lv/news/latvija2020/ 55 The archive of interviews can be found here: http://www.delfi.lv/news/delfi-tv-ar-jani-domburu/ 56 See the State Culture Capital Foundation overview of the media support program: https://infogram.com/mediju-
programma-1g0n2o5l3xxjp4y 57 “New members appointed to National Electronic Mass Media Council (NEPLP)”, NEPLP, 6 February 2017,
http://neplpadome.lv/en/home/news/news/new-members-appointed-to-national-electronic-mass-media-council-
(neplp).html 58 “NEPLP Latvijas Radio darbiniekiem pārmet pretlikumīga politiskā spiediena izdarīšanu [Employees of Latvia
Radio accuse NEPLP of political pressure]”, TVNET, 12 July 2017, http://www.tvnet.lv/zinas/latvija/668474-
neplp_latvijas_radio_darbiniekiem_parmet_pretlikumiga_politiska_spiediena_izdarisanu 59 “Žurnālistu asociācija nosoda mediju uzrauga lēmumu atlaist Latvijas radio vadību [Journalists’ association
condemns the decision of the media supervisor to dismiss the Latvian radio administration]”, LSM.lv, 29 September
2017, http://www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/latvija/zurnalistu-asociacija-nosoda-mediju-uzrauga-lemumu-atlaist-latvijas-
radio-vadibu.a251981/ 60 “Gandrīz puse novadu neatbilst likuma nosacījumiem [Almost half of Latvia’s districts don’t meet the legal
criteria]”, LSM, 17 May 2017, https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/latvija/gandriz-puse-novadu-neatbilst-likuma-
nosacijumiem.a236813/ 61 Aisma Orupe, “Pašvaldības baida skolu slēģšanas plāni [Local authorities concerned by plans to close schools]”,
NRA.lv, 28 November 2017, http://nra.lv/latvija/izglitiba-karjera/229890-pasvaldibas-baida-skolu-slegsanas-
plani.htm 62 OECD Economic Surveys Latvia, September 2017, http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-
Management/oecd/economics/oecd-economic-surveys-latvia-2017_eco_surveys-lva-2017-en#.WehJqDBx02w 63 “Pētnieks: Pārsteidza vājā izglītības kvalitāte Rīgas mikrorajonu vidusskolās [Researcher surprised by the poor
quality of education in the suburbs of Rīga]”, LSM, 11 April 2017, https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/latvija/petnieks-
parsteidza-vaja-izglitibas-kvalitate-rigas-mikrorajonu-vidusskolas.a232147/ 64 “Ušakovs: IZM pēījums par izglītības kvalitāti ir viltojums un krāpšana [Ušakovs: the Ministry of Education’s
report on education quality is fake and cheating]”, TVNET.lv, 12 April 2017,
http://www.tvnet.lv/zinas/viedokli/656055-
usakovs_izm_petijums_par_izglitibas_kvalitati_ir_viltojums_un_krapsana 65 “Rīgas dome liedz galvaspilsētas labākām skolām atvērt jaunas klases [Riga local authority bans the capital’s best
schools from opening additional classes]”, TVNET/LNT, 18 April 2017, http://www.tvnet.lv/zinas/latvija/656765-
rigas_dome_liedz_galvaspilsetas_labakajam_skolam_atvert_jaunas_klases
16
66 Māris Krautmanis, “Eigims gāž Elksniņu. Daugavpils brīnās [Eigims beats Elksniņš; Daugavpils is in awe]”,
Neatkarīgā Rīta Avīze, 4 September 2017, http://nra.lv/politika/maris-krautmanis-3/221132-eigims-gaz-elksninu-
daugavpils-brinas.htm 67 “VVC soda Ušakovu par sarunāšanos ar ēnām Krieviski [State Language Centre fines Usakovs for
communicating with his shadows in Russian]”, Delfi, 26 April 2017, http://www.delfi.lv/news/national/politics/vvc-
soda-usakovu-par-sarunasanos-ar-enam-krieviski.d?id=48775521 68 “Koalīcija valodas jautājumā būs barga [The coalition will adopt a tough position on the language issue]”, LA.lv,
7 April 2017, http://www.delfi.lv/news/national/politics/vvc-soda-usakovu-par-sarunasanos-ar-enam-
krieviski.d?id=48775521 69 “Zīmē Latvijas nākamo piecu gadu attīstības virzienu ceļa karti [Sketching in a five year development vision for
Latvia]”, Diena, 20 October 2017, https://www.diena.lv/raksts/uznemeja-diena/zinas/zime-latvijas-nakamo-piecu-
gadu-attistibas-virzienu-cela-karti-14183164 70 “Pašvaldību finanšu izlīdzināšana [Local government financial redistribution fund]”, Ministry of Finance,
http://www.fm.gov.lv/lv/sadalas/pasvaldibu_finansu_uzraudziba/pasvaldibu_finansu_izlidzinasana/2018__gadam/ 71 “Flash Eurobarometer 435: Perceived independence of the national justice systems in the EU among the general
public”, European Commission, February 2016,
http://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/index.cfm/Survey/getSurveyDetail/instruments/FLASH/yearFro
m/1974/yearTo/2016/search/justice/surveyKy/2116#p=1&instruments=FLASH&yearFrom=1974&yearTo=2016&s
earch=justice&surveyKy=2116 72 “The EU Justice Scorecard, 2017”, European Commission,
http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/document.cfm?doc_id=43918 73 “Most believe the courts are crooked”, LSM, 10 February 2017, http://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/society/most-
believe-the-courts-are-crooked.a223171/ 74 “Saeima approves legal moves against judge over bribe allegations”, LSM, 12 October 2017,
http://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/crime/saeima-approves-legal-moves-against-judge-over-bribe-allegations.a253399/ 75 FICIL, “Insolvency abuse report: 2016,” Deloitte, http://www.ficil.lv/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/16-04-06-
FICIL-Insolvency-Abuse.pdf 76 “Visvairāk aizdomīgu maksātnespējas lietu nonākušas izskatīšanā pie tiesnešiem Bula un Zašinskas, secina
žurnāls [Magazine concludes that most dubious bankruptcy administrations cases were ruled by judges Bula and
Zašinskas]”, Delfi, 23 November 2017, http://www.delfi.lv/news/national/politics/visvairak-aizdomigu-
maksatnespejas-lietu-nonakusas-izskatisana-pie-tiesnesiem-bula-un-zaskinas-secina-zurnals.d?id=49475655 77 “Kriminālprocesā aizdomās turētais Lūsis atkāpies no VL-TB/LNNK vadības [Bankruptcy administrators Lusis,
suspect in criminal case, resigns from post in National Alliance party]”, Delfi, 19 July 2017,
http://www.delfi.lv/news/national/politics/kriminalprocesa-aizdomas-turetais-lusis-atkapies-no-vl-tblnnk-
vadibas.d?id=48966067 78 “Administratoriem tiks liegta iespēja nepamatoti atteikties no maksātnespējas procesiem [Administrators will not
be able to recuse themselves from insolvency cases]”, Jurista Vārds, 14 November 2017,
http://www.juristavards.lv/zinas/271710-administratoriem-tiks-liegta-iespeja-nepamatoti-atteikties-no-
maksatnespejas-procesiem/ 79 “Police recover computer belonging to high-ranking official”, LSM, 31 July 2017,
http://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/society/police-recover-computer-belonging-to-high-ranking-official.a245105/ 80 “Spēkā stāsies būtiskas izmaiņas partijufinansēšanas likumā [Significant changes to party financing come into
force]”, Diena, 10 November 2017, https://www.diena.lv/raksts/latvija/zinas/speka-stasies-butiskas-izmainas-
partiju-finansesanas-likuma-14184658 81 “Trauksmes cēlēju likums pusgadu iestrēdzis Saeimā [Law on whistleblowers stuck in the Saeima for half a
year]”, LSM, 9 October 2017, http://www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/latvija/trauksmes-celeju-likums-pusgadu-iestredzis-
saeima.a253071/ 82 “Ķuzis: ceļu policisti vairāk palīdzēs šoferiem, nevis ‘slēpsies krūmos’ [Ķuzis: traffic police will help drivers, not
‘hide in the trees’]”, Delfi, 10 February 2017, http://www.delfi.lv/news/national/criminal/kuzis-celu-policisti-vairak-
palidzes-soferiem-nevis-slepsies-krumos.d?id=48502521 83 All the “oligarch conversation” articles published by Ir magazine in 2017 can be found here:
http://www.irlv.lv/ridzenessarunas/ 84 “Dūklavs lūdzis Šleseram palīdzību nedeklarētas zemes pārdošanā [Dūklavs asked for Šlesers’assistance in selling
an undeclared piece of land]”, Ir, 22 June 2017, https://irir.lv/2017/6/22/duklavs-ludzis-sleseram-palidzibu-
nedeklaretas-zemes-pardosana
17
85 “Saeima sets up committee to probe ‘oligarch transcripts’”, LSM, 27 July 2017,
https://eng.lsm.lv/article/politics/saeima/saeima-sets-up-committee-to-probe-oligarch-transcripts.a244718/ 86 “Ločmele: Sudraba ir visnepiemērotākais cilvēks izmeklēšanas komisijas vadīšanai [Ločmele: Sudraba is the most
unsuited person to lead the committee]”, Play 24, 1 August 2017, http://play24.lv/video/9692/locmele-sudraba-ir-
visnepiemerotakais-cilveks-izmeklesanas-komisijas-vadisanai 87 “KNAB priekšnieka amata konkurss izgāžas, sludinās jaunu konkursu [Search for new anticorruption chief fails, a
new competition will be announced]”, LSM, 18 October 2016, https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/latvija/knab-
prieksnieka-amata-konkurss-izgazas-sludinas-jaunu-konkursu.a207615/ 88 “New anti-corruption chief approved”, LSM, 15 June 2017, https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/crime/new-anti-
corruption-chief-approved.a240087/ 89 “Anti-graft squad won’t start case against Agriculture Minister”, LSM, 8 August 2017,
https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/society/anti-graft-squad-wont-start-case-against-agriculture-minister.a245971/ 90 “Limbažu tiesa sāk skatīt Magoņa krimināllietu [Court in Limbaži starts hearing case against Magonis]”, Delfi, 8
September 2017, http://www.delfi.lv/news/national/criminal/limbazu-tiesa-sak-skatit-magona-
kriminallietu.d?id=49213701 91 “Police detain high-profile insolvency administrators”, LSM, 8 June 2017,
https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/society/police-detain-high-profile-insolvency-administrators.a239363/
top related