Blinov, who was arrested in Poland on suspicion of organizing the attack on Volkov, traveled around Europe using a fake Latvian passport issued in the name of a non-citizen who had been convicted several times, the Latvian Television program "De Facto" reported on Sunday.
De Facto established that the fake Latvian passport was issued in 2017 in the name of Sergejs Šturba, a Latvian non-citizen. De Facto verified that the passport details were genuine, except for a picture of Blinov instead of Šturba.
Non-citizen passports are issued in Latvia to former citizens of the USSR, who are not citizens of Latvia or any other country.
Madara Puķe, spokesperson for the Office for Citizenship and Migration Affairs, told LETA that after receiving the information, the Office immediately verified, in accordance with its competence, that the passport in question was issued correctly, and ascertained that no discrepancies or shortcomings were found in the passport issuance process.
Dimitrijs Trofimovs, State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, told De Facto that "the State Police will take all necessary measures to investigate the alleged falsification of documents". The investigation will require cooperation with Poland, where Blinov is currently in detention.
The State Police has not provided comments so far.
