In order not to escalate the conflict between the West and Russia, Latvia could keep quiet more often, believes Miroslavs Mitrofanovs, a member of the Riga City Council, a candidate for the post of prime minister of the Latvian Russian Union (LKS).
The politician believes that nothing much depends on Latvia in the context of building international relations, however, what Latvia could do is not to provoke Russia. In Mitrofanov’s view, Latvia is of little interest to the eastern neighbor, and the purpose of the war in Ukraine is to change the shape of the world economy, giving Russia a bigger role in it.
“You should not escalate the rhetoric and provoke Russia. Russia’s goal in this war is to increase Russia’s role in the world economy and force the West to take into account Russia’s interests. This is not a story about Ukraine or the Baltic states,” said Mitrofanov in an interview with the LETA agency.
According to him, if Latvia continues to provoke Russia with words and actions, it can lead to a world war, because in the event of an attack, it would be a war not only with Latvia, but with NATO, during which the use of nuclear weapons cannot be ruled out, which would mean the end of civilization.
“If we can keep quiet at some point and not worsen relations between the West and Russia even more, then we should keep quiet,” the LKS politician believes.
In the assessment of the Riga councilor, the reaction of Latvian statesmen to Russian policy is provocative and it is necessary to stop looking for ways to further provoke Russia into an even sharper and more dangerous reaction.
“Here I am talking about mixing monuments, the ban on the entry of Russian citizens into the European Union, etc. There are a number of symbolic steps that Latvia could simply refrain from, while at the same time supporting a united position of the West in relation to Russia,” said Mitrofanov.
In the context of the demolition of the Soviet monument in Victory Park, Riga, Mitrofanovs pointed out that according to sociological surveys, 75% of Russian-speakers and a third of Latvians are against the demolition. In Mitrofanov’s opinion, this means that the majority in society for the demolition is minimal, with the opinion split in half, which “is not democracy”.
“If we talk about the support of the majority, then I am quite sure that if there was a referendum on the restoration of the death penalty, the majority would vote yes, but at the level of experts and politicians it will never be supported, because we know that there are human rights. Just saying that politicians should obey the majority’s desire to go to war and provoke Russia, it would not be right,” said the politician.
He claims that Latvian politicians do not have the state-mindedness to stop the escalation of relations between the West and Russia. According to him, the main thing is to do everything so that the people and the country simply survive, and not to harm Russia, waiting for it to collapse.
