REPORT. “Can you imagine it stopping at Ukraine?” In Latvia, the inhabitants fear the intentions of Vladimir Putin

The first motorist honked his horn as he passed. The second one shouted something that, to the ear, didn’t sound pretty pretty. The third, at the wheel of a white utility, took his hand straight out of the window to give a middle finger. And the curtains of the Russian Embassy in Riga (Latvia) in all this? Not moved a millimeter. No more than the police officers assigned to ensure the security of this splendid four-storey building.located in the very wealthy rue Antonijas, in the heart of the Latvian capital.

“At least they know we’re here, that we’re noisy, that there are many of us, and that we’ll fight back if ever”cowardly Maija, in her thirties, came to stick a “Putler” sticker that adorns Vladimir Putin with an Adolf Hitler mustache. They are asked to repeat: “Yes, I said if ever. If he ever attacks us, what.”

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It’s a fact: since the first bombs fell on neighboring Ukraine, some of the two million Latvians have not hidden their fears of being “next on the list” of the master of the Kremlin. “A friend tells me that I worry for nothing”, Maija confides. However, pseveral “clues” ended up convincing her that it was necessary “start to be afraid”. Already because his country shares 330 kilometers border with Russia. And then, “Who tells us that Putin is not going to want to come and ‘save’, as he keeps saying, the Russian speakers who live with us?” she insists, putting her hands back in her golden down jacket. Latvia, a country barely larger than the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, is home to 600,000 Russian speakers, or a third of the population.

In Riga, the chance of events would almost have something comical about it. Ukrainian refugees who land in the city are greeted on arrival at the Palais des Congrès, whose compound is directly opposite the Russian Embassy. A bus arrives, parks, there are a dozen to get off. Katrina Berke observes them. “There are no words to describe what Putin is doing to them”whispers, moved, this 25-year-old volunteer, arranging as best she can the dozens of bags of clothes and shoes that anonymous people have already come to drop off. “I tell myself that we may be next. We often talk about it with my husband, with my friends. Seen from Latvia, Russia, it’s right next door. Am I afraid? Yes, I am afraid.”

In the floors of the “Castle”, the official residence of the President of the Republic of Latvia, we take this feeling seriously. “It’s something that I hear, yes, in the mouth of some of our fellow citizens, admits Janis Kazocins, the country’s national security adviser. The world sees in broad daylight who Putin really is, and what he is capable of. When he brandishes nuclear weapons in the face of the world, this threat must be taken as he states it: very seriously.

So Brigadier Janis Kazocins asks a daily inventory of the situation. He compiles notes, demands others. He knows: he was director of the Latvian intelligence agency for several years. For the moment, nothing in particular has been reported to him. “Nothing”, he repeats, adjusting his tie. He made room in his diary to receive us, and it’s almost a feat. “I have forty minutes for you, but really no more, he warns. The days are long. Even longer than usual.” Antony Blinken, the American Secretary of State, has just arrived in the capital, for example. The previous Saturday, it was the American Chief of Staff, General Mark Milley, who came to shake hands. On Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew in for face-to-face talks with Latvian leaders. “It’s symbolically strong”, welcomes Janis Kazocins.

It is also a way of reminding us that Latvia does not have to feel alone. Indeed, unlike Ukraine, the three Baltic countries became members of NATO in 2004 when they joined the European Union. So, if Vladimir Putin put a toe in Latvia, “it wouldn’t be the samewarns Janis Kazocins. IArticle 5 of the charter requires the Alliance to respond if a member is attacked. It would then be activated and theThe reaction would be immediate. That’s why I think our country is not that vulnerable.”

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization even has a military base there, in Adazi, a town located about thirty kilometers by car northeast of the capital. Inside the barbed wire fences, several hundred Latvian and foreign soldiers train, just in case. The troops have even been reinforced since February 24 and the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. For example, Washington has deployed around twenty Apache combat helicopters there.

Not enough to reassure Ayja Pacevica, 65, crossed on the road to the dentist. “This article 5, it is for someone with common sense. Have you seen who we are facing? It’s a sick brain. A sick brain that can press the nuclear button. If Latvia were not a member of NATO, what would happen to us there? Write that down.”

Cap screwed on the head, Yuri Lepesevich lends an ear to the current discussion. “I believe that Madame is right to be wary, explains the father of the family. Putting flags is good. But that won’t stop the other fool from doing what he wants. I think we are not far from the Third World War. This professional scientist knows what he is talking about: “I was born in Lviv, Ukraine, then lived for thirty years in Murmansk, Russia, before moving to Latvia in 2014 with my wife and our child.”