Latvian president slams oligarchs

  • 2007-05-30
  • from wire reports
Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga on Wednesday said that the so-called Latvian "oligarchs" are really just "dwarfs" on the global scale. She also said, however, that she would most probably discuss their influence with her successor as president.
"As compared to the real oligarchs, for example, in Russia, they are such dwarfs, you see. It is relative. It is relative for the size of our country, for our resources, as it seems, quite sufficient, which have not been registered officially and have obviously been buried in various offshores and companies... If such people start giving monthly payments to individuals or parties, it is a very sad thing," Vike-Freiberga said in an interview to the Latvian public radio.
"It is use of the money in a malicious way to influence politics, not to speak about it openly. It is a threat to the country," she continued.
Vike-Freiberga has criticized the oligarchs in the past, and has spent some of her presidency working to reduce the amount of influence they are allowed.