Latvia: Ukraine asks for ban on town twinning with Russia, Belarus

Ukraine’s ambassador to Latvia, Anatolii Kutsevol, has asked the Latvian parliament, the Saeima, to pass a law to ban twin town agreements between Latvian municipalities and local governments in Russia and Belarus, LSM reports. In a letter to the parliament’s committee on public administration and local government, Kutsevol argued that such forms of cooperation were “reprehensible and dangerous.” He urged all Latvian municipalities to cancel such twinning agreements. Gints Kaminskis, chairman of the Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments (LPS), does not think that banning the agreements by law is necessary, however. Around 20 municipalities in Latvia had twin town agreements with municipalities in Russia and Belarus until 2022. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the municipalities suspended or terminated the agreements.