Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže said on X that she had decided to begin the procedure to include another Russian citizen on Latvia’s list of persons undesirable for the republic. According to her, the decision was made after information from competent authorities and discussions with the prime minister and the minister of the interior. Braže did not name the person against whom the procedure has been launched.
According to Delfi, this is Russian journalist Leonid Ragozin, who lives in Latvia. On September 30, Latvian Interior Minister Jānis Dombrava called for Ragozin to be included on the list of persons undesirable for the republic. He claimed that the journalist has long expressed views contrary to Latvia’s interests, accuses the West of Russia’s aggressive actions, criticizes sanctions, justifies Russian foreign policy, and discredits Ukraine.
The publication Press.lv describes Ragozin as an independent international journalist and writes that he has lived and worked in Latvia continuously since 2014. The Insider says that he collaborated for many years with Russian and foreign media, including the Russian Service of BBC, Newsweek, Politico, The Guardian, Kyiv Post, The Moscow Times, and Al Jazeera.
There The Insider also cites his recent columns, in which Ragozin criticized the leadership of Ukraine and Kyiv’s European allies. The publication writes that he praised U.S. President Donald Trump for his attempts to establish a negotiation process and claimed that supporters of the war want any negotiations with Russia to fail. In an August column, Ragozin called Volodymyr Zelensky’s rhetoric provocative and wrote that painful compromises at the negotiating table are becoming Ukraine’s only way out of a national catastrophe.
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