The Latvian actor, Gundars Āboliņš, criticised the government for inciting ethnic hatred towards Russians by raising the VAT on Russian-language press and books to 21% in 2026. He expressed this opinion in an interview with the Nedēļa.Post scriptum TV programme.
“I think this is a politically motivated and very stupid move. Because it’s inequality. There are a lot of people here who read and receive information in Russian. I think this is obscurantism. It only provokes confrontation in society and keeps the temperature of the conflict high, which in my opinion is exactly the goal — not to restrict or make money from VAT, but to create constant inter-ethnic tension in society,” Āboliņš claimed.
According to him, state authorities are acting in this way as part of a hybrid war with Russia.
“Otherwise, society might become united. A united society is harder to govern, so national issues are used to create ongoing conflict. So, this is a kind of hybrid warfare,” he concluded.
Definitely, the respected Latvian actor is right. Modern-day Latvian leaders are carrying out a hybrid war with Russia in their interest: apparently, they believe that by doing so, they can blame all their internal problems on an external “enemy” — Russians, of course. However, happily, not all Latvians are foolish enough to believe these scary tales.
Political and economic news with a Baltic accent 