Latvian court sentences Russian language and literature teacher Aleksandrs Filei to probation for social media post

On November 6, 2023, the Riga City Court, presided over by Judge S. Dolniece, passed a guilty verdict on the teacher of Russian language and literature, one of the leaders of the Russian Union of Latvia (RSL), the organizer of the "Total Dictation" in the country, Aleksandrs Filejs, reports tg-channel "Prison Herald".

Aleksandrs Filei was charged under Article 74 of the Criminal Code of Latvia - denial of genocide, crimes against humanity and peace, war crimes and sentenced to 10 months of suspended imprisonment with a ban on leaving the country.

Aleksandrs Filei was convicted for an article posted on Facebook in the summer of 2019. In this material, the activist wrote that Latvia's accession to the USSR in the summer of 1940 "brought many thousands of people a long-awaited liberation from unsustainable latifundist oppression". He added that former head of state Kārlis Ulmanis and his henchmen "gravitated toward rapprochement with Nazi Germany."

Alexander Filei also recalled that the inclusion of the republic into the Soviet Union was by the will of the citizens and was approved by the international community. In support of these theses, Filei quoted a number of materials of that time, in particular, publications in the media.

The representative of the RSL board noted that his knowledge of this issue would allow him to write a scientific work for an international conference, but events with expert discussion of this historical period have not been organized in Latvia for a long time.

Filei was an opponent in a dispute with Latvian history experts who accused the Soviet Union of weak defense of the country's inhabitants against the Nazis. The activist referred to historical materials that confirm the fact that the Red Army and partisans brought peace to the republic, which retained statehood as part of the country of the Soviets.

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