Masha and the millions
Latvian appears to front the assets of sanctioned Russian billionaire Arkady Rotenberg.
The Cleaner and the Laundromat: Belarusian Cleaning Magnate Allegedly Laundered Millions Through Disgraced Latvian Bank ABLV
Latvian investigators suspect the owner of “Clean World,” a well-known cleaning business that stretches across Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, of using the notorious bank to launder tens of millions of euros. Reporters looked into Eduard Apsit and his business.
Mom, That Man is a Friend of Mine
How the police, the school and the neighbours in Daugavpils for years did not notice the paedophile, who was caught only thanks to an anonymous Re:Baltica reader.
Does Facebook Censor Posts in Support of Ukraine?
Many people in Latvia believe so, but Re:Baltica found no evidence that content moderators on Facebook would consciously delete posts showing support for Ukraine. But there is another problem—its content policies are designed in a way that it is practically impossible to express negative emotion when speaking about the war. The Kremlin only benefits from this.
“A gay club instead of the Russian theatre in Riga” or the power of imagination in Russian propaganda
The presence of Mārtiņš Staķis, the Mayor of Rīga, at the opening of the LGBTQ-friendly club Skapis has alarmed Kremlin propagandists. As on other occasions, they distorted the news and added completely fabricated claims to create more resonance.
A Year of War. The Deniers, the Agitators, the Glorifiers—Who are They?
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Latvian security services have opened more than 40 criminal probes for incitement of hate, undermining the interests of Latvia, violations of EU sanctions and other crimes, including ones that don't have legal precedent. Some of the cases are dangerously close to restricting free speech
Is TikTok a Gateway to Politics in the Baltics? For Now, Only in Latvia
Latvia is the first of the Baltic states where a TikTok party has been elected to parliament. Before the elections, their star was an unemployed young woman with a high-school diploma, but her videos had received millions of likes. Even though the number of TikTok users is fairly similar in all of the Baltic states, in Latvia the platform is used by populist politicians spreading Kremlin-friendly messages. It doesn't play a role in politics in Estonia and Lithuania yet.
Disinformation on TikTok: Latvian police open criminal probes, while the police in Estonia ask to delete
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Latvian State Security Service has started seven criminal investigations for supporting Moscow on TikTok or using the platform to spread ethnic hatred. Who are the voices from the Baltics that mirror Kremlin narratives there? And why is Lithuania and Estonia taking it easier?
Traders Are Sneaking Banned Russian and Belarusian Wood Into the EU By Pretending It’s From Central Asia
Not long after imposing sanctions on wood imports from Russia and Belarus, Europe saw an influx of wood supposedly coming from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Authorities say sanctions-busters are increasingly mislabeling wood as Central Asian so they can keep bringing it in to the EU.