Latvian President Raymond Vejonis signed the law "On the status of a participant in the Second World War", which caused extreme indignation of the Russian Foreign Ministry. According to the document, citizens of Latvia who fought for both Nazi Germany and the USSR were given the same status as a participant in World War II. But that is not all. According to him, the participants of the Second World War are "Latvian citizens who were such on June 17, 1940, and permanent residents of Latvia who legally entered the country before that date," and "on individuals and their families who arrived in Latvia for the so-called treaty on military bases of October 5, 1939 "it does not apply. It does not apply to those who received citizenship of the republic by way of naturalization, and to non-citizens living on its territory. That is, as the head of the parliamentary faction of "Accord" Janis Urbanovich noted earlier, the status of a veteran of the war will not actually be able to get the winners in this war. The law signed by the President of Latvia also says that the status of a veteran of a World War II participant can not be obtained by those who worked in the KGB of the USSR or the LSSR, an exception was made only for those who in these organizations were employees of financial departments or administrative divisions. Such a decision did not pass by the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Maria Zakharova, who rigidly replied to Raymond Veionis. "Outraged by this latest blasphemous legislative act.

The frank mockery over the course and results of the Second World War is absolutely unacceptable and will have serious consequences for Russian-Latvian relations, "the website of the department. As she said, Riga constantly rewrites history, and the next trick insulted the memory of 150 thousand Soviet soldiers. At the same time Zakharova stressed that the new law further inflames interethnic conflicts and xenophobic sentiments.

The Russian Foreign Ministry appealed to the UN and the OSCE with a request to assess this "flagrant step of the Latvian authorities".