By Andrius Sytas
VILNIUS (Reuters) – Latvia said it would close one of its border crossings with Russia next week, after accusing Moscow of trying to create chaos there by funnelling Ukrainian passport holders through the small rural checkpoint.
Latvia’s foreign ministry said Russia had issued an order on Thursday saying people with Ukrainian passports could only enter Russian territory through Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport or Latvia’s Ventuli crossing point from next week.
The remote outpost of Vientuli – which means “lonely” in Latvian – was too small to cope with such traffic, the government in Riga said late on Thursday.
Diverting all Ukrainians there, would “present tensions on (European Union) border” and “significantly affect public order and pose a threat to national security,” the government added in its statement.
Latvian Foreign Minister Krisjanis Karins said Russia was trying to create problems on the frontier.
“Russia continues its tactics, trying to divide the EU member states that have a border with Russia. Such behaviour is doomed to failure. We will closely coordinate a common position with EU and NATO partners and act accordingly,” Krisjanis wrote on social media website X, formerly Twitter.
There were no immediate comments from Russia on Latvia’s statements.
Vientuli – which typically processes about 60 crossings a day, according to the Latvian Border Guard – would close from Monday, the government said.
It said it was also closing the small Padedze crossing, without spelling out its reasons, but leaving two larger crossings with Russia open.
Last month Latvia closed one of two border crossing points with Belarus, a close ally of Russia, as the prime minister accused Minsk of again using illegal migrants as a “hybrid threat” to undermine the Baltic state’s security.
In 2021, Latvia, Poland and Lithuania faced an immigration crisis when thousands of people, mostly from the Middle East and Africa, began crossing from Belarus.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas and Janis Laizans; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
