Rebaltica has published articles about connections between Latvia and Uzbekistan. The research is excellent. Our only complaint is that Rebaltica continues to promote the myth that Parex Bank collapsed because of the Global Crisis when actually it collapsed because of internal fraud. Also Rebaltica refuses to publish articles about the fraudulent 2009 Latvia/EBRD bailout of Parex even though the fraud was confirmed by the government in 2014.
The new articles are about “former” KGB agent Yuri Savitsky (Jurijs Savickis) who is Gazprom’s key man in Latvia, Kremlin-linked Parex Bank, and AB.LV which took over many Parex deposits after the EBRD bailout fraud, which all had relationships with the corrupt regime that looted Uzbekistan.
These Uzbek revelations highlight a serious problem that has been ongoing for 25 years, ever since Latvia’s so-called “independence” in 1991. The Latvian government is controlled by offshore bankers from the KGB.
In 2005, a whistleblower gave a detailed list of material frauds at KGB-linked Parex Bank to Latvian authorities and the US Treasury provided money laundering information about KGB-linked Multibanka (Skonto) and KGB-linked VEF Banka (Savitsky). This was the pivotal moment when any rational person who previously doubted that the KGB controlled the supposedly-democratic government could not be in doubt anymore.
Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis made beautiful speeches about how he would lead a big crack-down. And then he did nothing. Nobody was prosecuted. Billions of euros of public money disappeared into the black hole of the KGB and the full loss went to taxpayers with nobody being held accountable.
Latvia should have been suspended from the EU and NATO immediately, and not re-admitted until Latvia prosecuted and imprisoned the KGB bankers in order to prove that (1) the government was really a constitutional democracy and (2) the government really shared values with the EU and NATO.
Unfortunately, EU and NATO officials chose instead to delude themselves that Latvia has rule-of-law even though it obviously doesn’t thus allowing Latvia’s KGB Oligarchy to perpetuate itself.
When you read these articles about the KGB bankers in Latvia looting Uzbekistan, please keep in mind that these people have looted a lot of other countries including Latvia and they still control the Latvian government today. Savitsky is Gazprom’s intermediary (Itera) in Latvia. Savitsky appointed Kalvitis to run company Latvian Gas (the natural gas monopoly). The Parex oligarchs are enjoying over a billion euros that disappeared from Parex while government officials continue to lie that Parex collapsed because of “Sweden” and the Multibanka oligarchs are enjoying over a billion euros that disappeared as their construction company Skonto has overcharged the government often by 200% or 300% on major state projects.
Don’t be fooled by Media articles claiming that ethnic-Russian politicians like Tatjana Zdanoka and Nils Ushakovs are pro-Kremlin and ethnic-Latvian politicians like Aigars Kalvitis, Ivars Godmanis, and Valdis Dombrovskis are pro-Latvia. They are ALL pro-Kremlin because they are ALL actively protecting KGB activities in Latvia.
We will only believe that Latvia is a rule-of-law democracy when the oligarchs behind Parex, AB.LV, Multibanka, and VEF Banka are in prison, and their wealth has been confiscated and returned to the taxpayers of Latvia, Uzbekistan, and other victimized countries.
