Society needs a great deal of resilience, said Latvian Minister of the Interior Rihards Kozlovskis in an interview to TV3 programme 900 seconds.
When asked about the risks listed in the confidential portion of the report from the State Security Service (VDD), Kozlovskis said Latvia’s society will need a great deal of resilience in the near future. The situation and developments in Estonia, where two major assets were burned down in acts of sabotage – warehouse and restaurant owned by Ukrainians – indicates that the enemy is on the move and society needs to be resilient.
“I don’t promise easy days,” the minister said.
According to Kozlovskis, what happened in Estonia can be linked to the decision by Baltic States to disconnect from the Russian power grid. Latvia, he said, should be prepared for possible acts of sabotage on the power grid. “We cannot exclude this possibility,” said the politician.
Information is analysed and suspicious persons are interviewed in cooperation with Estonian colleagues. However, although no sabotage attempts have been found so far, the risks cannot be excluded.
When asked if drones are used in provocations again in the future, Kozlovskis promised: “If need be, we will force them down.” The minister stressed it is necessary to improve detection systems.
As previously reported, throughout 2024, VDD continued regularly informing staff of critical infrastructure of intelligence risks, signs of suspicious activities and what to do when such activities are noticed.
In 2024, VDD inspected 9 170 employees of critical infrastructure objects and persons who had the need to access the critical infrastructure for the provision of various services. As a result of the inspections, the VDD issued negative opinions regarding nine persons to the management of the objects, declaring them inappropriate for work at the objects of critical infrastructure.