Russians attempt to discredit Latvian intelligence services
- By defencematters
Security Police Chief Normunds Mezviets said that the activity level of Russian intelligence services in Latvia is moderate
In an interview with LETA News Agency, Security Police Chief Normunds Mezviets said that the activity level of Russian intelligence services in Latvia is moderate. Furthermore they recently also carried out activities meant to discredit their Latvian colleagues.
He explained that Russian intelligence services are interested with the domestic political, economic and financial process in Latvia, as well as Latvian security and intelligence services, including the Security Police, the Constitutional Protection Bureau, the Military Surveillance and Security Service. Mezviets added that Russian intelligence services are also interested in matters related to national security and defense.
Mezviets said that foreign intelligence services are also interested in current trends, as well as planned events. For example, in the context of Latvia's EU Presidency, these intelligence services are interested in what Latvian politicians are planning or not planning, and are interested in what decisions might be made.
''We must remember that many important decisions within the EU and NATO are made under the principle of unanimity, thus each the point of view of each country, not just the Presidency, is important,'' Mezviets emphasized.
''We must also note that in addition to their intelligence activities, we are seeing more frequent attempts by Russian intelligence services to discredit our intelligence services,'' Mezviets added.
The Security Police chief also admitted that intelligence services from countries outside the EU and NATO have also shown interest in the domestic processes in Latvia, but their activity is considerably smaller when compared to Russia. He did not comment whether these could be Belarussian or Chinese intelligence services.
Published: 02.04.2015 by Gatis Kristovskis, LETA - Photo: LETA
