Arkady Ostrovsky

I didn’t issue my Ukraine and Russia Update last Sunday and I won’t be issuing it today - bit challenging when you are being evicted from your only home and sent into exile without any explanation or the right to appeal. But I am hoping to restart work next week. The main goal of my persecutors is to silence me, but I won’t be gagged, if only because journalism is my bread. However hybrid, infowar-scented journalism many editorial offices have accepted as a given is not my choice. I’ll keep telling people what they need to know, not what they want to hear or especially not what the beneficiaries of this horrible war want them to hear. In the meantime, you are welcome to subscribe to my Substack open.substack.com/pub/leonid… where I publish the updates - free for know. You may also consider supporting my work by subscribing on X. I am not issuing any subscriber-only material at the moment, but I will start if the audience is sufficient. The sadistic punishment imposed on me is painful, but also liberating. For many years I was acting publicly like all fugitive Russian journalists in Rīga - mostly avoiding to talk about Latvia and other Baltic countries despite learning more and more about them, including stuff that I didn’t want to know as a standard Russian liberal. Now that stifling self-censorship is over and I’ll be glad to share my knowledge based on 12-year experience of living there. As I said before, no revenge. I love Latvia, I am pro-Latvian and I’ll come back home to Rīga no matter what. I present no threat to Latvia and I abhor Putin’s regime which stole from me two other countries that I know and love best. But I think it is politicians who are taking Latvia down the black hole of Putinization, lawlessness and normalisation of war who are the real danger for its future as a flourishing and independent state.

I got a chance to say a few words about my political persecution in Latvia to a multi-million audience before we go into discussing Trump’s pivot to Putin. Many thanks to @AJEnglish for being concerned about my situation. aje.news/70y71y

“I think the threat of Eastern Europe and all of Europe becoming more like Putin’s Russia, of security concerns being used to justify more control, of whole countries being taken over by political police and intelligence officers, as happened in Russia — all of that has been a very strong motivation for me to warn about this danger.” English version of my interview with @meduzaproject meduza.io/en/feature/2026/10…

I can now confirm that yesterday I was notified of my expulsion from Latvia where I lived for 12 years. This, I believe, is a long-brewing revenge by far right politicians for my investigation into their links to Russian neo-Nazis who found refuge in Kyiv and who circulated the manifesto of Christchurch shooter in 2019. It is also a punishment for my commentary on the Russian aggression in Ukraine and for Pavel Sheremet investigation. The notification doesn’t point to any specific misdemeanours or statements which prompted the decision. I was declared persona non grata, a status designed for diplomats who enjoy immunity from prosecution, not for ordinary people. This was done - as far right politicians who spearheaded the decision openly admit - in order to deny me justice in the Latvian court system: PNG status cannot be appealed in courts. This makes me conclude that I am facing political persecution. For me it is a huge personal tragedy. I am being evicted from my only beloved home, deprived of my circle of friendship and support. I love Latvia, the land of my ethnic Latvian ancestors, and have no sense of revenge. I will always remain pro-Latvian. It makes me immensely sad that high positions in the Latvian government have been captured by forces whose closest political relation is Putin and who are using Putin’s aggression in Ukraine as a pretext for eroding the rule of law and democracy in the European Union. My stance on the war in Ukraine remains unchanged. I condemn the Russian aggression and support Ukraine’s sovereignty over occupied territories. Ukraine is a wound in my heart, not a source of political gain as it is for my persecutors. But I’ll continue to criticise Western countries for mishandling this conflict and not acting in the best interests of the Ukrainian people. I shall not be gagged. Shame on those who understand what is happening but look away or buy into smear campaign waged against me by the pro-war lobby and far right info dumps. One day, they’ll come for you, too. Attn @RSF_inter @ECPMF