July 3, 2024, 4:31 p.m.
Rihards Kols chaired the foreign affairs committee in Latvia’s parliament for the past six years. He also served as head of the Latvian delegation to the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe’s (OSCE) parliamentary assembly. He was recently elected to the European Parliament, where he will begin serving on July 16. He spoke recently to Cristina Maza about Europe’s security challenges on the sidelines of the Lennart Meri Conference in Estonia. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What are the biggest security challenges Europe faces today?
What we're seeing in front of our eyes is an axis of evil challenging the world order that everyone established together after the Second World War. Our task is not to allow that to happen, to provide all the necessary support to Ukraine so Ukraine can be victorious. By victorious, I mean restoring its internationally recognized borders and kicking out the occupants.
After the Second World War and the atrocities in the Holocaust that the whole world witnessed, the words “never again” should be enshrined in a rock, not just in empty words. We have to stand by those principles. Those who commit more crimes, crimes against humanity, must be held accountable for their actions in front of the law. The call for a special tribunal [for the crime of aggression against Ukraine] is not just wishful thinking. It’s a necessity. It’s the moral duty of the free world to deliver that.
The OSCE parliamentary assembly is another organization that is being targeted purposefully by Russia. Russia is withholding its payments. Russia is violating all of the organization’s principles and statutes. And it’s not held accountable. They are still a member of this institution, and some people say that in light of everything happening, we still need to have dialogue. Dialogue with whom? With war criminals? Moral clarity has to be in the Western politician’s mindset.
Many observers say the OSCE is now defunct because Russia is undermining it from within. Do you agree with that assessment?
The OSCE, yes [it’s defunct]. But there is still a functioning OSCE parliamentary assembly, where there are a lot of challenges as well. What the Council of Europe and other institutions managed to do was they expelled Russia. So, the other task is to get rid of Russian employees in these institutions.
I will use the word infested. The democratic institutions, Western institutions, have been infested with [Russian] agents, through different levels, senior levels, executive levels.
I can give you an example from the OSCE parliamentary assembly. From 2021, the Vienna office was chaired by and directed by Daria Boyarskaya, a Russian citizen who, for the past 10 years or so, has been working for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has been a private interpreter for [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and [Foreign Minister] Sergei Lavrov.
You don’t have to tell me more. I know who that person is and what structures she’s working for. This is a security concern for international organizations and Western democratic institutions. We should expel such individuals from these environments to restore the credibility and accountability of these Western institutions that matter.
The OSCE’s mission is not only to observe elections. It also includes arms control, human rights, and more.
Right now, it’s not only Russia that is undermining it. Belarus is an accomplice. That’s why, whenever we talk about imposing sanctions on Russia, I say that mirror sanctions should be applied to Belarus because they are partners in crime.
You’ve mentioned that European countries should stop purchasing Russian gas. Where does Latvia get its energy, and has Latvia's cost of living increased since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine?
The cost of living isn’t only a problem because of Ukraine. It’s global instability. There’s a conflict in the Middle East. The Houthis are blocking the Red Sea, which is also affecting global trade and prices. Latvia and the Baltic countries made it a law to stop buying fossil fuels from Russia. Not a drop of Russian oil or gas is being sold in Latvia or consumed. Of course, that means diversifying our energy security.
The European Union has also managed to get its act together. Only four countries still buy Russian gas: Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, and Serbia. The numbers are insignificant, really insignificant, if we compare them to the 24th of February [2022, the day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine].
We are heavily investing in renewables. We are diversifying our electricity market as well. We are planning to become totally free of dependence on Russia or Belarus when it comes to the electricity grid by 2025. For the time being, yes, we still have to compensate for some shortages of electricity.
We have invested in our security for the long term. Latvia has a gas storage depository where we can save up to 21 terawatt hours. Latvia’s annual consumption is around seven terawatt hours, so that’s three times the national level consumed that we can save and store. That means we can provide gas to Estonia or Lithuania if there is a shortage. So we are very, very independent when it comes to gas. The heroin needle has been pulled out forever.
There’s a lot of concern in Europe about NATO's future in light of the upcoming U.S. presidential election and candidate Donald Trump’s comments about NATO. Can Europe pay for its security if the United States takes a backseat?
We have considerably stepped up over the past, let's say, six years. There was a clear commitment to that at the Vilnius [NATO] summit. The 2 percent [of GDP spent on defense] is not the ceiling anymore. It's the rock bottom. We are actually encouraging [NATO leaders] to make a new threshold, to make the minimum 3 percent. The Baltic states are already heading towards 3 percent. We are heavily investing in our defense capabilities, air defense, and of course, learning from what is taking place in Ukraine, from their experiences. There has been a massive boost in defense.
But of course, I would always say that we could do way, way more. If [the Baltics] have already been awake for two decades, some in the West are just waking up. I argue that it’s time for a military renaissance in Europe. The European military industry is just starting its engines. That means the only ones that can really meet the demand are the U.S. and the U.S. military-industrial complex.
I made that argument to representatives of the U.S. Congress, whom I met extensively for the past year or so, especially from October to April when they were negotiating the national security supplemental. The arguments were, “Why should we spend more of the U.S. taxpayer’s money? Europe should step up with their commitment.”
Look, we are. Just before you submitted $60 billion, we agreed on €50 billion. Then individual member states made multi-annual commitments for Ukraine. Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Baltic countries, and Latvia, we committed to providing 0.25 percent of our GDP for the next three years to support Ukraine, in addition to our defense expenditures, in addition to what we have been doing already. I argue that the policy of isolationism is the policy of losers.
We don't have the privilege to choose which U.S. president we will work with. We’re going to work with whoever U.S. citizens choose to be the next president. So it’s as simple as that. Nobody can say what's going to happen after the election. But let's work on things that do matter right now. There's so much right now that we can do.
