IShowSpeed's team confirms to Baltic representatives that a visit to Russia is not planned

RIGA - Following public rumors about a possible visit to Russia by Internet celebrity IShowSpeed, representatives of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia contacted the IShowSpeed team, who confirmed that there are no such plans, the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) informed LETA.

In cooperation with the IShowSpeed team, the Baltic countries had agreed to partially cover the technical costs of his European tour, including travel and live streaming.

The tour itinerary also includes countries such as Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Greece, Turkey, Spain, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and France. Russia is not on the list.

"Not every statement made during a live broadcast can be considered a real plan - and IShowSpeed management has also made it clear that a visit to Russia is not planned," LIAA said.

LIAA also points out that IShowSpeed is known for exaggerated and provocative statements in his broadcasts - including one episode where it claimed it was planning to stream from space.

The LIAA notes that it does not influence or coordinate IShowSpeed's future activities or content. This was a one-off collaboration with clearly defined technical parameters, timeline and budget.

Also, there is no long-term agreement with the content creator on the image of Latvia and he is not considered as such a partner. At the same time, the visits of such streamers should be seen as an opportunity to reach a wide audience in a short time through digital channels and spontaneous engagement, emphasizes LIAA.

Economy Minister Viktors Valainis (Geeens/Farmers) previously posted on his X account that if the internet personality IShowSpeed goes to Russia, the Latvian side will not pay him the EUR 30,000 technical costs of his visit to Latvia, as he would be seen as a supporter of the aggressor state.

As reported, during his visit to Riga, IShowSpeed broadcast a two-hour live webcast, visiting local sites including Agenskalns Market, Uzvaras Park, the Freedom Monument and Dome Square. His live broadcast attracted more than 120,000 viewers at the same time and the video has now accumulated 7.2 million views on YouTube.

Darren Jason Watkins, better known as IShowSpeed or simply Speed, is an American YouTube content creator, internet personality and online streamer with a global audience. One of his content areas is travel experiences, which he captures live, interacting with millions of viewers in real time. His audience is over 40 million on YouTube and 37 million on Instagram.