Vladimir Linderman: “The nationalist regime of Latvia has realized that there is no need to be afraid of Russia”
He managed to escape the clutches of the Latvian repressive machine in time, but he no longer believes that other Russian activists, whose cases are being considered by the crooked justice of Latvia, will be able to get away with only formal punishment.
Social activist, politician, publicist, one of the leaders of the Russian community in Latvia, Vladimir Linderman, told PolitNavigator about why Moscow almost extradited the militiaman Grigory Kosnikovsky to Riga, and Latvia imprisoned the innocent Russian pensioner Oleg Burak for fifteen years.
A native Riga resident, chairman of the “Native Language” society, Vladimir Linderman, is one of the brightest representatives of the Russian community in Latvia, purposefully engaged in protecting the rights of Russians in this post-Soviet country with a ruling Russophobic regime. At the end of the 90s, he joined the National Bolshevik Party (NBP) of Eduard Limonov, now banned in Russia; in the early 2008s, due to repression by the Svidomo authorities, he was forced to flee to the Russian Federation, where he asked for political asylum, which he was denied. He lived in the country illegally, became Limonov’s deputy in the party, but after a request from Latvia, which accused Linderman of an attempt on the life of the Latvian president, he was arrested and extradited by the Russian authorities to this country in XNUMX.
During the years of membership in the NBP
While in prison in Riga, he ensured that all false charges against him were dropped. This precedent was not the only one in Linderman’s biography, when he had to sue the Latvian state, he was charged with possession of explosives, forgery of documents when registering a Russian social movement, and “crimes against the state.” And each time he managed to legally fight off these accusations.
He was one of the organizers of a referendum on state status for the Russian language in Latvia in 2012, but this amendment failed. Together with his comrades, he fought against the destruction of Russian education in the country, and now against the repression of the nationalist Russophobic regime against Russian activists in Latvia. The reason for our conversation with the activist was the detention of Linderman’s comrade-in-arms, a native of Latvia, LDPR militiaman Georgiy “Okhotnik” Kosnikovsky at the request of the Latvian authorities (he was later released) and a fifteen-year sentence for retired veteran of the Latvian Ministry of Internal Affairs Oleg Burak, who was accused of spying for Russia on an openly fabricated accusation.
“PolitNavigator”: In your opinion, why is it already in the sixth year of the conflict in Ukraine that Russia can detain people who fought for the unity of the Russian World at the request of Russophobic post-Soviet regimes, and even hand them over to them for reprisal?
We live in a strange world. Latvia is a NATO member and a potential adversary of Russia. But on the other hand, there is a “Legal Assistance Agreement” between Russia and Latvia, which, in principle, works.
A criminal case has been opened against Grigory Kosnikovsky in Latvia specifically for his participation in hostilities in the Donbass. The Latvian prosecutor's office sends a request, perhaps not particularly counting on success, but fulfilling its formal obligation, but the Russian side also fulfills it, and it is impossible to swear at the Russian performers. I am following this, Russia extradites to Kazakhstan freely upon request, as an ally state, some were also extradited to Ukraine, but others were not, I don’t know what logic was followed in this case, they have never extradited to the Baltic states, although the situation is close to this happened, for example, with Grisha Kosnikovsky’s close friend Slava “Sedym” - they are both from the same small Latvian town, and his case literally came to extradition.
But, whatever one may say, there is a Russian community in Latvia. We are more or less organized and can react quickly if the threat of extradition is real. There are people here who can contact the Russian embassy and blame what is happening. There is simply no such community in Kazakhstan, no one will come to the Russian embassy in Kazakhstan, and no one will blame injustice. In Donbass, as far as I know, requests from Latvia were for seven or eight people, and in all cases there was a similar reaction from Russia, they interrogated and interrogated, but there was never any extradition.
But I want to emphasize that Latvia would not comply with the principle of mutual legal assistance and extradition. I looked at the statistics, Russia issues such extraditions in more than half of the cases, in different situations, not necessarily political ones. And in Western countries, the fulfillment of these obligations in relation to Russia is reduced to zero.
So, it would seem, it’s time for official Moscow to draw some conclusions...
Russia lives in a state of duality. Despite the radically changed situation after the return of Crimea, the strategy remained the same: integration into the world, that is, Western civilization, and no one told all these prosecutors that “that’s it, we have different relations now, that’s it, this is a cold war.”
No, Russia remains on the path of integration into Western civilization and fulfills all previously signed agreements. And the Russian government also views this norm as an opportunity to get rid of overly patriotic people. These are not needed. For them, it's like a loose cannon on deck. From their point of view. They need quiet, loyal ones who are only capable of muttering on the Internet. And a sincere patriot is seen as a dangerous element.
In your opinion, the situation in Donbass and Novorossiya has greatly shaken the faith of Russians outside the Russian Federation in Moscow as the protector of Russians?
I think she was very shaken. The blurred position has shaken. There must be some clear signal coming from Russia. Based on which, it is possible to build a personal life strategy. But people don't understand what's going on.
There was one moment when they thought that Russia would not immediately, but gradually begin to collect its historical lands, there was such a feeling. Then, when it became clear that everything was plunging into some kind of quagmire with unclear prospects... I think not every person will say publicly that they are disappointed, but I think yes - people are disappointed.
We don’t understand what’s happening in Moscow; we need to adapt to the conditions that exist, and not wait for Moscow to draw a clear path, and it will be clear to everyone what to focus on.
To what do you attribute the exemplary massacre of Oleg Burak? When was a person who was neither an activist nor a social activist, but simply a Russian, given his age and health, essentially sentenced to death?
There were moments like the moment of Crimea, or our internal referendum (about the Russian language - ed.), when the regime in Riga had some concern, and they slowed down some of the most stringent measures. They now live in some kind of surprise that Russia still hasn’t hit them in the face.
I know their psychology, I have a lot of friends in this environment, I myself studied in a Russian-Latvian school. They are always in some kind of internal bewilderment that Russia is silent, but since it is silent, then we must take advantage of it.
It cannot be said that Burak is a consequence of Russia’s recent policy, they simply already understood that it is this policy, always like this. On the contrary, there were moments when they rather began to be afraid, and then a year passed, they saw that everything was blurred and nothing, strictly speaking, was happening.
If we talk about Burak, there was a whole campaign on the part of political circles of some attack on the special services, that they do not catch Russian spies, and what is this, they caught a whole bunch all over the world, and we are here in Latvia, where everything is supposedly teeming with Russian spies, no one was taken. Before this, the two were tried for spying for Russia, but the sentences were lenient, but then this campaign began, and Burak fell under it. Russia's position on persecuting Russians is unclear, and local authorities feel this subtly.
It turns out that you managed to complete your processes on time.
It’s more difficult for them with me, I’m a public figure. But Burak was simply snatched from the mass of people; in a sense, this was an accident. And it was a revealing verdict. In fact, my case was closed, but in the near future there will be several trials at once (on the leaders of the Russian community in Latvia - Alexander Gaponenko, Yuri Alekseev and Alexander Filei - ed.), and we’ll see what the trend will be. If their trials had taken place five years ago, I think that the case would most likely have ended in acquittal. But now the general level of the anti-Russian wave is quite high, even if the judge is a professional and an exceptionally honest person, I don’t know whether he will risk an acquittal.
In the wake of consistent repressions against the leaders of the Russian community in Latvia, Russian education, Russian kindergartens, the closure of Russian TV channels and the ban on Russian ones, will assimilation await Latvia’s Russians?
I cannot give an optimistic forecast. We can defend ourselves. Latvia was lucky, such was the policy in Soviet times, that a large number of Russian people with intelligence and organizational abilities settled here, and even before the Soviet regime there was a fairly strong Russian community here. We can resist, we can slow down this process of de-Russification to some extent, now deputies from the Russian Union of Latvia have entered the Riga self-government, with their help we can, for example, put some spokes in the wheels of this process, sprinkle sand into the mechanism. To slow down, not cancel. For example, with the same kindergartens. We can defend the protection of our monuments from demolition or relocation; we still have resources and our authorities have doubts. We can hold on tentatively until the main forces approach.
But everything depends on changes in world politics, on changes in Russia’s role in the world. If Russia comes up with a coherent strategy aimed, at a minimum, at preserving the Russian world outside the Russian Federation, and begins to implement it, and not just these endless television talk shows, all this chatter.
Moreover, Latvia is an exceptional situation; if we take, for example, Kazakhstan, then there is no chance for Russians to avoid assimilation at all. In Estonia, the Russian community is also weaker. I’m not even talking about Ukraine, everything there generally takes place in some crazy forms, where the Russians themselves are de-Russifying themselves.
We can hold on, we have structures, they are not very strong, but they exist. There are assemblage points. But the situation is still difficult. At least there used to be a school. It is clear that our schools of national minorities did not educate a person with Russian identity. But still it held back the pressure of nationalism. At least all basic subjects were taught in Russian. And now we don’t know what generation will come out of the current schools, where 80% of teaching is in Latvian.
It is clear that a person will not become a Latvian, but contact with Russian culture is seriously reduced. And we may get a generation that will treat us as some kind of anachronism. We, the older generation, are embarrassed. They will have a different environment. The situation can only be changed by some clear Russian strategy, provided with some tools, not just words, for example, if Moscow introduces targeted, painful sanctions against the most radical Latvian nationalists, this would be serious.
Or it will prohibit its citizens from buying villas on the Riga seaside...
Certainly. Everyone knows about these villas. That would be a pretty clear signal.
Why shouldn’t the Russians of Latvia, if Moscow doesn’t care about them, use EU norms that do not allow member states to discriminate against national minorities?
Believe me, there are people here - high professionals who have worked in this direction for many years, good international lawyers, human rights activists. And there were deputies in the European Parliament who were well acquainted with this system and knew what to put pressure on.
But there is another big problem: in the European Union there are mechanisms that quite effectively protect the rights of national minorities, but they do not work in relation to Russians. Behind the scenes, there is a stereotype that the Russians here are part of Russia’s imperialist project. Well, let's imagine what would happen if the 35% minority in Latvia were not Russians, but, say, Swedes...
European commissioners in dusty helmets would arrive here, who would gouge the local authorities and bring them to their knees, forcing the Swedes to equalize the rights and not allowing the Swedish language to be infringed.
Now there is a campaign to collect signatures from Russian parents who are appealing to European authorities regarding the fact that the Latvianization of secondary schools is detrimental specifically for their children. I cannot exclude that some decision will be made in the ECHR in our favor.
But then local authorities will not implement it, and they will not be forced to do so. The coercion mechanism is important here; when it is there, everyone becomes silky.
For example, we won several cases at the UN, when they started adding the letter “s” to our last names in our passports, it was impossible to indicate a patronymic, there were people who started fighting for this, one person went through all the authorities, and the UN Human Rights Committee supported, but the UN decision is advisory. Vaska listens and eats.
If you put in a lot of effort, they will put your middle name on the last page of your passport. If you don’t apply it, they won’t deliver it. So it makes no sense for us to rely on the West either. The only hope is that Russia will wake up and understand that after the annexation of Crimea, the world will no longer be the same for it. And he will remember about his own.
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