Expert explains why Latvia is building a fence on its border with Belarus

Riga has launched construction of a 173km fence on the Latvian-Belarusian border. As noted by political expert Aleksei Belyayev, this will be an expensive project, but Latvian authorities are ready to invest – being captured by this idea for a long time.

“Latvia has begun to construct a fence and refused agreements related to cross- border co-operation and people’s movement. Latvians come to Belarus and see what is really happening in the country. They see Belarusians’ standard of living and prices in stores. They understand that everything is available here, though some might wish it to be different. Such situation is irritating [Latvian authorities],” Mr. Belyayev said in his talk with Alfa Radio.

According to the expert, Latvia has been cherishing the idea of such a fence on the border with Belarus for a long time. “A few years ago, I even wrote an article for a Belarusian newspaper about Latvia’s desire to build a fence on the borders with Belarus and Russia – so this is not a momentary decision. They have been trying to purposefully isolate themselves from us for many years, despite high costs and a lack of any economic and military expediency [of this project] – since, in the event of an unexpected outbreak of hostilities, no barbed wire fence will be able to stop anyone. Migrants can actually easily climb it over and crawl across. The only thing is that this fence will become a great obstacle in the way of animals: they do not know about state borders and are used to living in open nature,” the expert added.

“These are clearly unfriendly steps, but they cannot surprise on learning what the Latvian government is doing on its territory: destroying monuments and actually rehabilitating Nazism. This is an authoritarian fascist regime," Mr. Belyayev concluded.