The Ukrainian flag can be seen flying almost everywhere in the central districts of Riga, Latvia.
A huge caricature of Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggesting a skull, was even displayed on the wall of a building opposite the Russian Embassy. In the greyness of this Baltic winter day, the image is striking.
The Latvians support the resistance of the Ukrainians without flinching.
“We have a historical memory,” argued the Secretary of State for Defense, Janis Garisons, in an interview with The Canadian Press, in a meeting room at the ministry’s headquarters, in the center of the capital.
He is, in a way, the Latvian deputy minister of defence. His country had to win its independence twice during the 20th century, once in 1919 and then again in 1991, after a painful Soviet annexation in 1939.
Her father and uncle then had to find refuge in another home because their parents had been deported by the Soviets.
“All Latvians have had similar stories in their families,” he continues. Tales of looting, deportation, brutality, destruction.
This explains Latvia’s fierce animosity towards Putin’s Russia, its neighbor with which it shares a long border.
“We know what it means when the Russians arrive. We are under no illusions. »
Visible support and large community
From the windows of his offices, in an elegant villa near the city center, the Russian ambassador can, among other things, see a dozen Ukrainian flags floating in the wind on the vast grounds of the convention center.
If he chooses to look the other way, a huge face of Putin appears, skeletal and sinister, against a blood-red background.
Even the street was renamed after the Russian aggression, in honor of Ukraine. Every letter or parcel sent or received must give the Russian embassy staff a headache…
The police are clearly visible all around and guard the embassy compound.
Not far from there, on a busy street, a Christ figure of a woman on a large canvas, to evoke the Ukrainian martyr, with in the background, the flag with two wide horizontal bands of yellow and blue.
The image of this ailing woman is within walking distance, across the park, of the city’s large, golden-domed Russian Orthodox cathedral, which many Russian speakers frequent.
Because the Russian minority is large in Latvia, it makes up no less than 34% of the country’s population. The Russian influence is visible everywhere, architecture, statues, since this small country was part of the empire of the tsars until the end of the First World War.
In fact, we hear Russian spoken almost everywhere in Riga, and many signs, posters, menus are written as much in Latvian as in Russian.
And these are not Russian visitors strolling here as tourists, because the Latvian authorities have restricted access to their country to nationals of the Russian Federation. No one is admitted without a specific reason and biometric data is collected.
A Russian-speaking elected representative from a locality in the east of the country, therefore near the border, has even already made statements sympathetic to Putin’s Russian regime.
Determination standing the test of time?
So what about the loyalty of the Russian minority?
Loyalty remains fundamentally a difficult concept to measure, argues Colonel Didzis Nestro, the Latvian army’s acting deputy chief of staff for government affairs.
Russian-speaking Latvians are well integrated and “are loyal”, even if some have “different opinions”, he summarizes, in an interview with The Canadian Press.
Could the war of attrition looming on the Ukrainian front end up losing public support, however, with the explosion in the cost of energy caused by the conflict, inflation, etc.? ?
Canadian Army Lieutenant-Colonel Jérémie Gauvreau, Deputy Commander of NATO Task Force Latvia, has been in that country for three years. He is responsible for the Canadian troops stationed there — a battalion reinforced with other allies that acts as a defense and deterrent force.
He has faith in the determination of the Latvians, but also of their other Baltic neighbours, Estonians, Lithuanians, who have also suffered from the Russian yoke.
The Baltic countries had sounded the alarm for several years concerning Russia and they do not want to give an inch, assured Lieutenant-Colonel Gauvreau.
“Everyone understands that the winter will not be easy and that Putin’s strategy is to freeze Europe,” agreed Janis Garisons. Yet the Latvians will remain steadfast.
“It will take us much longer here [pour que l’appui de la Lettonie à l’Ukraine faiblisse]. Because everyone here understands the consequences: if Ukraine falls, we are next. »