{"id":526433,"date":"2026-03-18T10:46:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T07:46:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=526433"},"modified":"2026-03-18T13:10:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T10:10:21","slug":"latvian-state-security-chief-says-migrants-in-belarus-are-trained-to-confront-border-guards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/latvian-state-security-chief-says-migrants-in-belarus-are-trained-to-confront-border-guards","title":{"rendered":"Latvian State Security Chief Says Migrants in Belarus Are Trained to Confront Border Guards"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The head of Latvia\u2019s State Security Service, Normunds Me\u017eviets<\/b>, said in an interview with the British newspaper The Telegraph<\/a> that migrants in Belarus are trained in special camps before being sent to the border.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember the first years, they were pretty, pretty calm \u2026 but in the last year it\u2019s becoming more aggressive,\u201d<\/i> the newspaper quoted him as saying.<\/p>\n

According to Me\u017eviets, 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re showing their scars, and without being a great expert in this field, I can say they\u2019re not real scars,\u201d<\/i> he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just poor, quite simple make-up,\u201d<\/i> he added when asked to clarify.<\/p>\n

The Telegraph also cites Me\u017eviets as warning that Latvian border guards face increased risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had some information that they are training them [to be more violent],\u201d<\/i> he said.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cdepots and hotels,\u201d as well as training camps where migrants are taught combat skills before being pushed into Latvia.<\/p>\n

According to Me\u017eviets, tunnels similar to those discovered in Poland have not yet been observed on the Latvian border.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still haven\u2019t seen tunnels as our Polish friends have\u2026 but from the start we\u2019ve seen a massive build-up of Belarusian authorities and Belarusian KGB and border guards openly promoting this illegal migration,\u201d<\/i> he said.<\/p>\n

It should be noted that in recent days, with improved weather conditions, migrants have indeed become more active along the Belarus\u2013EU 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The head of Latvia\u2019s State Security Service, Normunds Me\u017eviets, 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. \u201cI remember the first years, they were pretty, pretty calm \u2026 but in the last year it\u2019s becoming more aggressive,\u201d the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":526432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/69ba7a135ee9a.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Latvian State Security Chief Says Migrants in Belarus Are Trained to Confront Border Guards"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142338,143090],"tags":[143118,143171],"class_list":["post-526433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-belarus","tag-latvija"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}