Latvia has a plan in case another mass mobilisation is declared in Russia and thousands of people attempt to cross the Russian-Latvian border to flee it, says Minister of the Interior Māris Kučinskis.
This plan was tested on the Latvian-Belarusian border. Latvia has acquired a great deal of experience, and this «training» from Belarus has benefited our services, said the minister.
Latvia’s border zone shared with Russia is mostly clear of incidents at the moment.
There are certain isolated cases, but they are under control, said the minister.
«I cannot say the same about the Belarusian border. Very rarely we see mornings in which border guards report zero illegal border-crossing attempts. This will likely remain while [Aleksandr] Lukashenko’s regime is still active. We cannot say for certain that Russia is not involved either, because we can see that people who try to cross the border arrive in Minsk from Moscow,» said Kučinskis.
Lately the interior affairs sector has had its hands full battling Belarusian disinformation on Telegram. There are posts, for example, in which tracks in the snow are shown and Latvian border guards are presented as having carried people to give them back to Belarus, said the minister.
«The combat this, and there are plenty of naive people who believe this and then write letters about Latvian border guards doing this. In a state of emergency, my response to NGOs is for them to trust what we’re doing. I pledge my word, and we have discussed this with border guards. If there are children and women among those people and if anyone is sick, these people are brought to Mucenieki [centre for asylum seekers],» said the minister.
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