On 25 July, President Edgars Rinkēvičs met with Minister of the Interior Māris Kučinskis at the Riga Castle to discuss topical issues of the internal affairs system, including police actions in cases affecting national security and illegal migration from Belarus.
During the meeting, the President of Latvia called on the Minister of the Interior to instruct the police to take firm and principled action against threats to public security and order, including hate crimes. Recently, certain cases, such as the provocations against law enforcement officers on 16 July this year on Jūrmala beach and the termination of criminal proceedings in the case of the young man beaten in Daugavpils, show the lack of understanding of the police regarding this type of offenses.
President Rinkēvičs was informed about the priorities of the Ministry of the Interior in the context of the 2024 state budget, which, among other things, concerns the issue of remuneration of the employees of the Ministry of the Interior system. E. Rinkēvičs expressed his support for the increase in the remuneration of the employees of the internal affairs system.
During the conversation, the President of Latvia pointed out that illegal immigration from Belarus constituted a hybrid attack. "Latvia has a duty to protect the security of the external borders of NATO and the European Union. The State Border Guard must have sufficient legal and practical means to fulfill this task. Therefore, the amendments to the State Border Law and the State Border Guard Law adopted on the initiative of the Ministry of the Interior, allowing the Cabinet of Ministers to announce an enhanced regime of border guard system operation if a disproportionately high number of illegal crossings or attempts to cross the state border are detected, are to be welcomed," said President Rinkēvičs.
E. Rinkēvičs confirmed his readiness to get acquainted with the progress of the construction of the border infrastructure and strengthening of certain sections of the Latvian-Belarusian and Latvian-Russian borders in person.
During the meeting, the President also discussed the readiness of the internal affairs system to respond to possible provocations from the Russian terrorist group "Wagner".
