Russia bans prominent Latvians from entering country amid tensions

Russia has blacklisted three prominent Latvians from entering the country amid latest tensions between the two countries

Latvian parliament member Andrejs Judins, Constitutional Protection Bureau chief Janis Maizitis, and theater director Alvis Hermanis have all been included on the list. 

It follows after Latvia blacklisted three Russian artists-Oleg Gazmanov, Joseph Kobzon and Alla Perfilova-over their controversial views on the Ukraine crisis. The singers were due to perform at the highly popular New Wave festival in Jurmala before the ban

Latvian Foreign Ministry spokesman Karlis Eihenbaums said: ''Obviously, Russia is up to its usual eye for an eye behavior. We do not see such an approach as neither sensible nor constructive,'' Eihenbaums said.

Constitutional Protection Bureau spokeswoman Iveta Maura said Maizits had been informed of the decision, but this matter will in no way prevent him from fulfilling his duties as the head of the Constitutional Protection Bureau.

In March, Latvian theater boss Maizitis canceled a trip to Moscow's Bolshoi Theater production amid the crisis in the Ukraine calling Russia ' a sickness to the whole international community;"

Furthermore, Andrejs Judins, who is an ethnic Russian himself, was one of the initiators of the amendments to the Criminal Law, which Saeima passed this past spring and makes gross derogation of genocide, crimes against humanity, crimes against peace or war crimes against Latvia perpetrated by the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany a criminal offense.