Was there really a reason to close the border with Belarus?

Starting last Friday, the Paternieki border crossing point on the Latvia–Belarus border did not operate for five consecutive days. During that time, the crossing was unavailable for border traffic. The official reason initially given was a technical malfunction.

The minister's explanation

Interior Minister Jānis Dombrava later commented on the situation in more detail, saying the problems were related to mobile network coverage in the area.

Operators contradict the explanation

However, all mobile network operators contacted by LSM confirmed that there were no outages or disruptions in their networks during that period. This means the reason given by the minister does not match the information provided by the operators themselves.

The discrepancy raises questions about what actually caused the five-day closure of the border crossing point, and whether the information given to the public was accurate. The situation is discussed in more detail on the LSM program "Let's Discuss in the Evening," which seeks answers to questions the minister's explanation has so far failed to resolve.