Such a loud question is raised in the headline by Neatkarīgā, whose journalist Elita Veidemane has generalized the recent scandal on a Swiss train, where there was an ‘attack by a resident of Latvia who adopted the ideology of the aggressor state on Ukrainians.’
“I would like to think that Latvians will not be cowardly,” said former deputy chief of the state security police Didzis Šmitiņš. “For the last twenty years, I have been living among my circle of people, and I currently do not have deep and reliable information about the general mood of society. Regarding the people I work with, I am sure: they will stand and fall for Latvia. I am in the National Guard, and we will not retreat a step. There will be no compromises, only struggle.”
“Former state secretary of the Ministry of the Interior Andris Stāris, who is considered one of the most informed people in the state, when asked about the reaction of Latvian society to a possible invasion, responds: “I would like to hope that there will be no Latvians who would side with the occupiers, but unfortunately, I must say: there will be some. I do not know the percentage, but there will be. However, speaking of an invasion, a realistic optimist awakens in me: there will be no invasion.”
Stāris admits that in the event of a possible invasion, there will be people who, not out of conviction but in an attempt to save their lives, will try to collaborate with the invaders. “I think mainly such people could be from the generation that lived during the Soviet era and still mumble that ‘everything was better then’ - free healthcare, cheap electricity, affordable apartments, and inexpensive telephone services. For the youth, I have a different confidence,” says Stāris, “my granddaughter is 21 years old, and among her friends, there is more patriotism than in the older generation.”
