This is what the head of the oddly named society New East, Jorens Dobkevichs, is trying to prove in his activities.
In an interview with Diena, he says: “My ancestors have lived here — by the Daugava, from Naujenes to Piedruja — for many centuries. They are Old Believers, Catholics, Lutherans, Orthodox, Latvians, Poles, Latgalians, Russians, Jews. Latgale is my home, no matter what it is like. However, like me, part of our New East team are re-emigrants. We left, and I see nothing wrong with that, but we returned, and that is the main thing. We lived abroad, studied, worked, and at some point, specifically during the pandemic, which radically changed the whole world, we came back home.”
“People live here — regardless of whether they are Russian or Latvian, citizens or non-citizens — who in the current geopolitical situation support Ukraine, not Russia. And through culture, media, and educational programs, they strive to proclaim this and make us stronger in this region. I remember the moment when we realized that everything was very bad, that a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine had begun. At that moment, our cooperation with local government structures and to some extent even with state structures here in Daugavpils became impossible, where there is censorship, where there is self-censorship, where people believe in Russian propaganda, but we wanted to organize an event to support Ukraine or support the Belarusian opposition, to talk about these topics, about what is happening twenty minutes away from us...”
“Do I feel safe after the Daugavpils municipal elections? - asks J. Dobkevichs rhetorically, - No, I do not feel safer living in this environment. Do I feel safer in a state where women are banned from having abortions or want to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention? No, I do not feel safe. This is what I associate more with safety, not whether Russian tanks will enter or not.”
