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This is already the second time that the Security Police investigate Hramcovs: last time he was accused of illegal handling of home-made explosive devices after a video aired on television that showed him instructing viewers on how to make an explosive from an artillery shell found in a forest. Hramcovs was ruled not guilty by a first-instance court, but the prosecutor's office later appealed the ruling in a higher instance court.

Before May 9 this year, the Security Police were alerted about several persons who could attempt to provoke participants in the May 9 events in Riga, attracting foreign television's attention in order to discredit the state of Latvia, as Kristine Apse-Krumina, aide to the Security Police's chief, told LETA.

"Based on the report, the Security Police opened a criminal process pursuant to Section 225 of the Criminal Law. Several persons who were supposed to participate in said activities were identified and questioned as part of the investigation," said Apse-Krumina. Hramcovs currently has the status of a suspect in a criminal process, she confirmed.

Hramcovs, however, has a completely different version. As Hramcovs told LETA, at the beginning of May he was making a video for a St. Petersburg television station about preparations for the May 9 celebration, and what they thought about the government's ban on the use of Soviet symbols at public events. The video was also supposed to include interviews with organizers.

To shoot the interviews, Hramcovs and a camera operator visited Victory Park on May 7, where he met several acquaintances and talked to them about the ban on Soviet paraphernalia. They told him, off camera, that they had several such items in their automobile, but they did not want to talk about it on camera.

After that, Hramcovs found several people to interview in another location in Pardaugava, but the next day, Security Police opened a criminal process against him, accusing him of inciting public unrest. According to Hramcovs, the Security Police obviously believe that he was trying to talk his acquaintances into using Soviet symbols at the Victory Park, which is "absolutely not true."

"They have invented this out of thin air," said Hramcovs.

Latvian Association of Journalists commented that interviewing residents about their opinion about the ban on the use of Soviet symbols cannot be considered inciting public unrest. The association reminds that the Law on the Press and Other Mass Media authorizes journalists to collect information in any manner within the law.

Section 225 of the Criminal Law, under which the Security Police have opened the criminal process, states: "For a person responsible for organizing such mass riots, which entail demolition, destruction, burning, destruction of property, or violence against individuals, or resistance to representatives of public authority, or who takes active participation therein, the applicable punishment is deprivation of liberty for a term of no less than three but not exceeding twelve years, and probationary supervision for a term not exceeding three years."

This past spring, Hramcovs was awarded as the Most Professional Journalist in 2013 by the Latvian Association of Journalists.