Latvia: Russia wants to restore empire: President Rinkevics

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin dreams of restoring the Russian Empire, as indicated by Russian propaganda and hybrid warfare, Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics stated, LETA reported. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Rinkevics said that the Latvian government should remember that peacetime was over, stressing the need to boost the defence industry and defence spending. At the same time, he added that preparation for various scenarios should be rational and “without any sense of doom,” LETA reported. He was commenting earlier media reports on scenarios for NATO military exercises. Rinkevics pointed out that membership of NATO and the EU was “the greatest security guarantee in the world.” Meanwhile, Latvia’s NATO ambassador, Maris Riekstins, said that even a 1% possibility of war was enough to be prepared, LSM reported.