Dual citizenship bill has country up in arms

  • 2004-06-03
  • By The Baltic Times
RIGA – A bill sponsored by the ruling coalition that would force top government officials to give up their second passport has elicited a wave of protest from both ruling and minority MPs and caused fierce speculation on the eve of the country's June 12 Europarliament elections.

The bill, which is sponsored by the People Party, aims to prevent a conflict of interest from arising in which one of Latvia's several high-ranking officials with dual citizenship would be forced to choose between loyalties.
As People's Party MP Aleksandr Kirsteins argue, a situation could occur when the justice minister, who would have both Swedish and Latvian citizenship, might be forced to choose in a case where Lattelekom and Sweden's TeliaSonera were litigating against one another.
The bill was accepted for consideration by Parliament on Wednesday. In Latvia there are several officials who have dual citizenship – Constitutional Protection Bureau chief Janis Kazocins (Latvia and U.K.), Nils Muiznieks (Latvia and U.S.) and New Era's parliamentary faction head Krisjanis Karins.
Opposition MPs have pointed out that the bill is aimed specifically at Kazocins and Karins, and that the minority coalition, having succeeded in chasing out New Era-backed Juta Strike from the anticorruption bureau, are out to get more officials.
New Era head Einars Repse said that the law was aimed at Kazocins. "It can be seen clearly from removal of Juta Strike and her replacement with a candidate acceptable to the ruling coalition. The next move will not take long and it will be the removal of Kazocins, who stands in the way of Russian special services and those, who want to go on robbing the state," he told the Rigas Balss daily on Friday.
Kazocins, a former British military officer, returned to Latvia in 2002, when he became Repse's part-time advisor on battling corruption. He was soon promoted to head the Constitutional Protection Bureau, though many have claimed that the Repse administration tinkered with the regulations so that Kazocins could assume the post.
Prime Minister Indulis Emsis, for his part, said he supported the proposal. "If people want to hold high offices in the public administration, they have to make up their minds which country they belong and serve to without keeping open some way for retreat. I disapprove of double citizenship as such and do not understand what it is," Emsis told the Baltic News Service earlier this week.