In times of great turmoil, and war undoubtedly is, many events are given a magical, significant meaning by people. It is hard to think of a clearer sign from above than the sinking of the Black Sea Fleet's flagship, the cruiser Moskva.
The incumbent President Emmanuel Macron won the most votes in Sunday's French presidential election and will face second-placed National Rally candidate Marine Le Pen in the next round in two weeks' time.
Latvian Russian-speakers have published a letter/exhortation on the initiative of LTV journalist Olga Dragiļeva, condemning Russia's criminal war against Ukraine and asking not to celebrate May 9 this year.
As of today - April 1 - the era of Covid is almost officially over in Latvia. Almost, because some restrictions remain. Vaccination is still required for those working in medical institutions and prisons, as well as for teachers, until the end of this school year. Face masks remain compulsory in medical and social care institutions and in public transport.
How is Zelensky different from Macron/Scholz? The answer is simple - Zelensky is the politician of the future, while Macron/Scholz embody the politics of a bygone era.
Last weekend saw a series of summits. A G-7 leader meeting, a NATO summit, an EU Council (heads of state) meeting and a visit by US President Joe Biden to Poland.
At the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, the National Electronic Mass Media Council (NEPLP) became active, first restricting the broadcasting of various Russian television channels in Latvia, and soon afterwards restricting access to internet resources.
The large-scale war between Russia and Ukraine is now in its fourth week, and it is obvious that whatever the outcome of the war, it will have a fundamental impact on the future world order.
A video has surfaced on the internet in which an employee of the Russian consulate in Liepāja threatens protesters against Russia's invasion of Ukraine in exactly the same words as Putin threatened Ukraine in his February 21 speech.
Andrejs Piontkovskis ir Hadsona institūta zinātniskais līdzstrādnieks, kurš dzīvo Vašingtonā. Viņš ir viens no nopietnākajiem un šobrīd pasaulē populārākajiem putinologiem, kura ekspertīzes ne vienmēr ir patīkamas, toties precīzas. Pašreizējo Krievijas attīstības trajektoriju Putina vadībā viņš prognozēja jau sen.
Earlier this week, a number of highly influential world politicians arrived in Riga. On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, on Tuesday Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. They all met with the highest Latvian officials. What message did Levits, Kariņš, Rinkēvičs give them, and what message did they give us?
Andrei Piontkovsky is a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute, living in Washington DC. He is one of the world's biggest and best-known putinologists, whose analyses are not always pleasant, but they are accurate. He predicted the current trajectory of Russia under Putin a long time ago.
How much of the blame do the Russian nation (in Russia) and people of Russian nationality (elsewhere in the world, including Latvia) bear for what is happening in Ukraine? While this question may seem secondary, since the most important thing now is to prevent a world war, it is crucial to answer it in order not to take the wrong steps based on misinformation.
Although the world's news agencies and broadcasting giants such as the BBC and CNN report on the war in Ukraine 24 hours a day without interruption, there is a key element in these reports that is one of the causes of the outbreak of this war.
The severe sanctions that Ukraine has been waiting for eight years, that the West has been talking about for eight years, but until now never got beyond talking about, have finally been implemented.
On Sunday afternoon, the Kremlin's fully controlled news agency RIA Novosti published a video report in which Putin instructs his "consiglieri" Shoygu and Gerasimov to prepare strategic deterrent weapons (nuclear weapons) on special combat alert. In other words, he was making a veiled threat to the whole world. This is basically an implicit admission that the Ukrainian campaign has failed. If not militarily, then certainly politically.
On the evening of the first day of the war, the "most severe" sanctions, which had already been mentioned and, one presumes, prepared in advance, were announced. Just how severe these sanctions were was shown the next morning, Friday, on the Moscow Stock Exchange, where trading resumed with a 22% rise in the indices.