"The criminal process against A. Mamikins has been started in accordance with Article 74.1 of the Criminal Law ,after the service evaluated the person's recent statements in the broadcasts of several Russian television channels loyal to the Kremlin, as well as on social networking sites. VDD has found that statements of A. Mamikins, in the assessment of the service, support and glorify the war started by Russia in Ukraine," said the VDD in a brief statement.
Mamikins, who worked as a TV journalist before taking up politics, has a long history of pro-Russian chauvinism, including a notorious trip to a Russian airbase in Syria while serving as an MEP.
The case against him will likely have to be compiled in absentia as he has moved to Russia, where he has continued to be an enthusiastic distributor of Kremlin propaganda.
In a television interview, Mamikins expressed confidence that Soviet monuments will be restored in Latvia and also tried to refute allegations about the well-documented massacres committed by the Russian army in the town of Bucha, Ukraine.
On Facebook, the former politician recently posted a photo with a Russian tank and the text: "If Russians are not allowed to enter the EU with a personal car, then nothing is said about tanks."
Mamikins was an MEP elected by the Harmony party in 2014 and served until 2019. He later switched his allegiance to the Latvian Russian Union party of Tatjana Ždanoka, another notorious Kremlin apologist.
