Sergei Vasilyev (Seva-Riga), a well-known Latvian economist and publicist, commented in his blog on the Russian LUKOIL’s leaving the country. According to the company’s representatives, Latvia has become uninteresting to them. Vasilyev says it is a result of the Latvian authorities’ years-long policy of ousting the Russian business from the country.
In his words, the Latvian ruling elite has been working for already thirty years on making Latvia UNINTERESTING to Russians. “Immediately after the independence the Russians granted to Latvia in 1991, the first national –contused government decided to destroy its own industry. The reason for such vandalism was simple – Russians mainly work at enterprises. It is necessary to close down the enterprises and then Latvia will become UNINTERESTING for Russians. They said – they did. The industry was destroyed within record-breaking terms through threats, artificially increased rate of the local currency, taxation pressure.
Ernest Buivid, the former director of a robotics plant, had a book filled in tight font with data on the number of the robbed, damaged, exploded property of the plant that cost over 50,000,000,000 dollars on a conservative estimate, taking into account the lost income. Luddites (the 19th-century English textile workers who protested against newly developed labor-economizing technologies - EADaily) are no match for them. However, the result did not satisfy the Latvian elite, as Latvia became UNINTERESTING not to all Russians in Latvia,” Vasilyev writes.
“Then they targeted the banking sector and transit. The oil pipeline Novopolotsk-Ventspils” ran dry. Ports have become idle gradually. The banking sector was cleaned off the hateful Russian-speaking residents. They did it so furiously that the money of depositors and billions of budgetary and even borrowed funds were ‘burned.’ But they did not spare money for ‘a holy cause.’ Only geeks are still customers of Latvian banks. All the other investors and depositors left to Estonia, Slovakia, Cyprus, Hong Kong promising that not only they but even their children will ever return to Latvia. Now LUKOIL is leaving – the Last of the Mohicans. Rosneft and Gazprom remain, but they are state-run, dependent companies. Besides, they have a mission – every year they are pumping dozens of millions of dollars from the Russian budget to the pockets of the Latvian nationalists with a fanaticism of sectaries. Everyone fights boredom in his own way. I am speaking about titular beneficiaries, or more specifically about a unique volte-face the authors of the project “Make it UNINTERESTING to Russians” came across. Quite unexpectedly, when everything that could be destroyed was destroyed, and little was left for gathering the national fruits and calculating the leaving Russian-speaking population, something terrible happened. Latvians rushed out of Latvia leaving behind the hated “Moskals.” They were leaving the country actively, fundamentally, with families and without a sign of possible return. Last week, parents of the pupils of one of the most prestigious Latvian schools discovered with horror that NO ONE of the graduated students is going to stay in the Motherland. The reason of such mass migration is simple – you will not believe, but Latvia is UNINTERESTING to them,” Vasilyev writes for conclusion.
As EADaily reported earlier, LUKOIL is selling 230 car filling stations to the Austrian AMIC Energy Management GmbH in the territory of Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland. The deals will be completed in the second quarter of 2016, after the anti-monopoly departments of these states approve the deals. Under the agreement made. UAB Luktarna and AS VIADA Baltija affiliated with UABLukoil Baltija will be managing the chains of the gas filling stations in Lithuania and Latvia. Earlier, the head of the company Vagit Alekperov explained that LUKOIL intended to sell its assets in the Baltic states because of the anti-Russian sentiments there. “We felt negative attitude towards us. We began losing money,” he said.
