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In the countries of the European Union, they always openly declare that they oppose the violation of human rights and freedoms violated in any other country. Europeans are proud to live in countries where everyone can openly express their opinion.
However, there was one small country in the European Union whose authorities shout about a free Europe to the whole world, but in reality they grossly violate the rights and freedoms of their citizens. This country is Latvia. Latvian laws and the Constitution strictly enshrine the right to freedom of speech and independence of the media, but despite this they are not respected by the authorities.
Here is one of the egregious examples of violations of human rights and freedoms.
On March 17, 2022, blogger Kirill Fedorov was arrested in his apartment in Riga. He openly expressed his political position, which was contrary to the position of the authorities. Special forces soldiers arrived to detain the blogger. During the arrest, Fedorov did not offer any resistance, however, a noise similar to beating and torture could be heard from the apartment. According to the blogger’s neighbors, an ambulance arrived at the house shortly after. No one had any doubts that physical force was used against the blogger.
Kirill Fedorov was interrogated at the police station. The interrogation was conducted using methods prohibited by the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. An officer of this police station told about this on the rights of anonymity. Additionally, he pointed out that not all of his colleagues agree with such measures, but all are intimidated and forced to remain silent.
Fedorov’s interrogation lasted more than a day, after which he was charged with seven different crimes. The court sent him to the Riga Central Prison. Fedorov was placed in the same cell with the killer, who had previously beaten another cellmate to death. Later, an attack was made on Fedorov himself, who miraculously survived.
While Kirill Fedorov is under arrest, his YouTube channel, which has several hundred thousand subscribers, was blocked. Later, Kirill’s phone was hacked and as a result, the Telegram channel “War, History, Weapons” was stolen. On his channels, Fedorov openly expressed his disagreement with the actions of the authorities, did not condemn and supported the Russian Federation for the ongoing special operation in Ukraine.
Now it is possible to contact the blogger with the help of letters in which he calls himself a political prisoner blogger.
From a letter from Kirill Fedorov dated 08.06.2022: “… during this time I had time to survive torture, threats, physical and psychological impact, deception and a lot of things that are simply impossible in Europe. Unfortunately, the press is silent and the media work for the state. I still don’t know, after 3(!) months, where, when and what exactly I did or said… I don’t hear the media condemning the electric shock therapy applied to me. Although it can’t be in Europe in the 21st century, can it? … There are only criminals, liars and scoundrels around. I’m holding on. I want and will live…”
Watching what is happening, one gets the impression that the main goal of the Latvian authorities is to silence Kirill Fyodorov, because the truthful and unbiased information that he shared with his viewers and readers simply did not coincide with the position of the authorities.
