How many Russians and Belarusians work at strategic enterprises in Latvia? 0 9

"A number of critical infrastructure enterprises continue to lay off employees who hold citizenship from aggressor countries," reported the Panorāma program of Latvian TV this evening. This is happening in accordance with the requirements of the national security law. Hospitals, for example, are reporting one after another about the number of employees laid off. Latvian Television (LTV) surveyed several state-important enterprises and found that many of them have not hired or employed people with Russian or Belarusian citizenship for many years.

This year, workers with Russian and Belarusian passports have been laid off in several Latvian hospitals. For instance, the Daugavpils Regional Hospital has terminated contracts with 49 employees, the Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital reports that it has ended employment relations with ten citizens of Russia and Belarus, and the Riga East Clinical University Hospital has terminated employment relations with 13 individuals.

Since June 28 of last year, citizens of Russia and Belarus are not allowed to be employed at critical infrastructure enterprises if the work involves access to information or technological equipment significant for the functioning of critical infrastructure.

Just as the exact list of all companies affected by the changes in the law is not publicly available, information about the total number of laid-off individuals across all companies has not been summarized. LTV surveyed individually. Critical infrastructure objects include, for example, electricity, water, and natural gas supply infrastructure, hospitals, bridges, airports, ports, and railway facilities. LTV contacted most critical infrastructure enterprises. The largest number of such workers among the surveyed enterprises is at the Latvian Railway, which provided a written response.

"At the moment, employment relations have been terminated with 13 employees, and it is planned to terminate employment relations with another 13 employees who are currently on long-term absence," explained Latvia's Railway.

This means a total of 26 employees, including track layers, railway vehicle drivers, electromechanics, and others.

In turn, Sadales tīkls terminated employment relations with two employees, complying with the requirements of the national security law.

However, most of these companies responded that even before the change in the law, for security reasons, citizens of Russia and Belarus were not employed in positions with access to critical infrastructure.

Such a response was given, for example, by Riga Airport, Rīgas tilti, the operator of the natural gas distribution system Gaso, and Latvenergo...

The Riga Free Port Authority also reported after a check conducted this summer that there were no such individuals employed there. Meanwhile, the Latvian State Radio and Television Centre states that citizens of third countries have not been employees of LVRTC for several years.