Latvia’s parliament, the Saeima, has passed a draft decision on revoking the citizenship of Latvian journalist and former politician Andrejs Mamykins to the commission on citizenship, LSM reported.
The draft decision was submitted by the opposition faction “Latvia First”. The document says that Mamykin, speaking on the Russian TV channel Russia 1, publicly called on Russia to bomb the Baltic States. His words, according to the faction, should be regarded as a call to start a war and open incitement to a serious violation of international law.
Edmund Jurevics, leader of the New Unity faction, told the LETA news agency that he saw the call to strip Mamykin of his citizenship as an attempt to divert attention away from pro-Russian politicians joining the Latvia First party.
Andrei Mamykin worked as a journalist in Latvia for many years and hosted a popular author’s programme “without censorship” on a Latvian TV channel. In 2014 he left journalism for politics and was elected as a member of the European Parliament from Latvia, where he worked for five years. In 2024, he left for Russia, where he actively participates in propaganda TV shows.
In autumn 2023, the Latvian State Security Service started criminal proceedings against Mamykin. The case was initiated under the article on justification of war crimes – after Mamykin said on the airwaves of Russian state channels and social networks that Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine was a “great holy cause”.