Baltic States – CIS, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legislation

MEPs Sandra Kalniete (Unity) and Ivars Godmanis have responded by circulating an explanation that refutes statements made in the book.

Rubiks' book, first published by the Moscow publishing house "Mezhdunarodnie otnoshenia" in 2001, depicts Rubiks as a victim due to his political beliefs, Kalniete's parliamentary assistant Martins Spravniks told LETA. Kalniete believes that the way Rubiks distorts Latvia's history is "perverse."

"I firmly believe that if Mr. Rubiks and his bosses in Moscow had succeeded in coming to power in August of 1991, Latvian Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis, myself and other officials of independent Latvia would have been persecuted, arrested, or even executed. There would have been no united Europe, and the Baltic countries would not have become members of the European Union, whereas MEP Rubiks would have continued as one of the highest officials of the Soviet totalitarian regime," emphasizes Kalniete.

Together with Godmanis, Kalniete writes to the other MEPs: "History is full of paradoxes. One of them is that it is thanks the democratic values of Europe that Rubiks has become a member of the EP and – with European taxpayers' money – has published and is distributing a book where facts about his participation in the coup and his active opposition to the restoration of the Republic of Latvia are distorted."

The MEPs state in their letter that Rubiks, the Latvian Communist Party leader, in August 1991, acting in accord with the organizers of the coup in Moscow, ordered a clampdown on civic freedoms and suppression of any resistance to the regime, using force if necessary.

Kalniete and Godmanis explain that Rubiks had turned against then-Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev and the legitimate government of Latvia that, following the nation's will, had restored independence.

Latvian courts subsequently convicted Rubiks of attempting to overthrow the democratic government and sentenced him to eight years in prison.