Фото: СГБ Латвии
The head of Latvia’s State Security Service, Normunds Mežviets, said in an interview with the British newspaper The Telegraph that migrants in Belarus are trained in special camps before being sent to the border.
“I remember the first years, they were pretty, pretty calm … but in the last year it’s becoming more aggressive,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.
According to Mežviets, before being sent across the border, migrants are shown videos allegedly depicting people who suffered from the brutality of Latvian border guards. He described such videos as fake. Analysts examined the footage and concluded that the injuries shown were not real.
“They’re showing their scars, and without being a great expert in this field, I can say they’re not real scars,” he said.
“It was just poor, quite simple make-up,” he added when asked to clarify.
The Telegraph also cites Mežviets as warning that Latvian border guards face increased risks.
“We’ve had some information that they are training them [to be more violent],” he said.
At the same time, the article notes that the head of the service was reluctant to disclose precise intelligence details. He stated that infrastructure has been created on the Belarusian side of the border, including “depots and hotels,” as well as training camps where migrants are taught combat skills before being pushed into Latvia.
According to Mežviets, tunnels similar to those discovered in Poland have not yet been observed on the Latvian border.
“We still haven’t seen tunnels as our Polish friends have… but from the start we’ve seen a massive build-up of Belarusian authorities and Belarusian KGB and border guards openly promoting this illegal migration,” he said.
It should be noted that in recent days, with improved weather conditions, migrants have indeed become more active along the Belarus–EU borders. Latvian border guards report the highest number of attempts: 15 on Sunday, 45 on Monday, and 22 on Tuesday. At the same time, pressure on the borders with Poland and Lithuania has been significantly lower, and on some days absent altogether.