28 Feb, 2025 18:29
EU state seeks to ban tours to Russia and Belarus
Latvian lawmakers have cited potential risk to citizens’ safety and being recruited for espionage
(The EU is getting desperate because no one at this point thinks Historic Sites are not honored by Russia and they are proud about their heritage. Zelensky lost, the accepting world won today, it will just take time; and for the CIA assets to be removed from Ukraine)
Latvian lawmakers have advanced legislation that would ban organized trips to Russia and Belarus, citing potential risk to the safety, health and even life of its citizens, as well as the potential recruitment of spies. (Do they have proof this ever happened? No, they don’t need it, “the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax” still survives and is useful by the racists in the EU)
The country’s parliament on Thursday approved in the first reading the amendments to the Tourism Law that seek to prohibit all Latvian-registered travel agencies from offering and providing tourism services in the two countries, according to an official statement.
Despite repeated calls from the State Security Service and the Foreign Ministry not to travel to Russia,almost 2,000 Latvian residents visited the countryevery month last year, noted the document.
When in Russia or Belarus,Latvians “may be recruited for espionage, exposed to intelligence and risks of provocation,” according to the deputies who initiated the amendments. The ban would be implemented as part of the current EU sanctions against Moscow and Minsk, the statement added.
Critics of the legislationhave argued that it addresses a non-existent issue.
According to official figures, 90% of all people crossing the Latvia-Belarus border are individual travelers.Tourist trips to Russia are no longer organized, and only four agencies offer services in Belarus.
Right-wing MP Ainars Slesers denounced thebill as “nonsense,” arguing that people could not be banned from foreign travel, as cited by media outlet TV3. MP Aleksejs Roslikovs pointed out that trips to “dangerous” countries such as Israel and Ukraine have not been banned.
The conservative National Alliance party has suggested that it would be more appropriate to ban passenger transportation to Russia and Belarus altogether, a measure that is under discussion by a relevant commission.
To come into force, the amendments must pass two more readings in the parliament.
Latvia, along with neighboring Baltic states Estonia and Lithuania, has been one of the most ardent critics of Russia. Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict three years ago,Riga introduced a number of draconian policies aimed against ethnic Russians, who make up roughly 23% of the country’s population.
https://www.rt.com/russia/613462-latvia-russia-belarus-travel/
(When the truth is revealed the EU practices racism, not danger to the citizens, but racismI thought that was their biggest worry, after all they let 100s of 1000s of Muslim terrorists in the European countries and especially the EU, except 2 or 3 countries that refused.God protect Orban and Slovakia etc.)