Rosliks says Latvia won't see him for at least a year or so

Aleksejs Rosļikovs, leader of the party “Stabilitātei!” and a former member of Latvia's parliament (the Saeima), has said he will not return to Latvia for at least the coming years. He is charged with inciting national and ethnic hatred and fled to Belarus. He also commented on reports that the sale of his property in Latvia has begun. A court has ordered his detention as a security measure and put him on a wanted list.

Rosļikovs said he is currently moving between Belarus, Russia and China. “I fly, I travel, I deal with certain issues that, in my view, we will need very much in the future,” he said. In these countries he promises to prove that “there are politicians in Latvia who do not betray their ideals”. He also vowed to return to Latvia.

An unfulfilled promise to return

Before the Saeima election on 3 October, both Rosļikovs and the party's board chair, Svetlana Čulkova, claimed he would be back the following day. The party failed to win seats in the Saeima and did not reach the two percent of votes needed to qualify for state funding. Rosļikovs did not come back on 4 October or afterwards.

Background to the case

This spring, Riga City Council revoked Rosļikovs's mandate as a council member because, over a three-month period, he had missed more than half of its sittings. Rosļikovs himself believes the case against him is a political commission. The court proceedings have been suspended until he is found.

His troubles began last summer, when, as a Saeima deputy, he condemned a declaration on “overcoming the consequences of Russification” from the rostrum. At the end of his speech he exclaimed in Russian, “There are more of us!” and made a rude gesture. A majority of deputies expelled him from the chamber. Earlier, deputies from “Stabilitātei!” had compared state language tests to genocide.

Rosļikovs's actions were received warmly in Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would welcome the deputy with open arms if he managed to escape Latvia. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said Rosļikovs had put “incorrigible Russophobes” in their place in his native language.