Riga: people in masks kidnapped and took Vladimir Linderman in an unknown direction

In the middle of the day right at the bus stop people in masks detained and took to an unknown direction Vladimir Linderman, an activist. According to eyewitnesses, a bus without signposts arrived at the bus stop, people dressed in black uniform and wearing masks got off it. They attacked Vladimir Linderman, pushed him to the ground and dragged him onto the bus. It also became known that the place of residence of Linderman was searched. The detention was possibly carried out in connection with the All-Latvia Parental Assembly, which was organized by the Russian Union of Latvia (RSL) about the education in the Russian language. According to the existing information, the security police carried out the detention in connection with the opening of the criminal case “Crimes against the State” against the organizers of the all-Latvian parents’ meeting held in Latvia, dedicated to preserving school education in people’s native language. In the same way, the security police will assess the protest action carried out by the “Russian Union of Latvia” on May 1 against the transfer of minority schools to the Latvian language of instruction only. The security police confirmed that the leader of the Russian Union of Latvia, Tatyana Zhdanok, had the status of a suspect, and a criminal trial had been launched against her. The investigation is at an early stage, the PB declined to comment. On April 20, the head of the organization of the Congress of non-citizens, Alexander Gaponenko, was also detained by the Security Police. Criminal proceedings had been initiated against his actions directed against state sovereignty, territorial integrity of Latvia, state power or the state system. For these crimes, a sentence of imprisonment for up to eight years is provided. As part of the criminal process, searches were also carried out in objects connected with Gaponenko. In February last year, a case was handed over to court, according to which Gaponenko was accused of inciting ethnic hatred for publication in facebook.