More names would be added to the 34-strong list as they became necessary, Kolovskis said.
The majority of the barred individuals came to the authorities' attention as a result of their activities fomenting unrest in eastern Ukraine whose presence in Latvia “could create a serious threat to state security and national interests,” Kozlovskis said.
The exact identities of those on the list have not been released to the public, but the minister confirmed that of the 16 new names, 13 were citizens of Russia and three were from European Union member states.
The Interior Minister has the power to over-rule the European Union's freedom of movement legislation if state institutions believe an individual poses a genuine threat to national security by means of terrorism or other actions.
Kozlovskis' move came on the same day that a notorious former Soviet paramilitary leader, wanted by Latvia for crimes committed during the independence drive of the early 1990s, was appointed deputy prime minister of the self-styled Donetsk People's Republic, a breakaway region of Ukraine.
At a press conference in Donetsk, Vladimir Antyufeyev described the Latvian independence movement as “the rebirth of neo-fascism in Latvia”.
Antyufeyev, a former major in the notorious OMON paramilitary police force, is also wanted by Moldova for crimes allegedly committed in the breakaway region of Transdniestria.
