Baltic States – CIS, Foodstuff, Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies, Russia

He stressed that there has been no single case of successful sanctions in modern history. Sanctions are useless, and it was a "nightmarish" idea to think that by imposing some sanctions, the people of Russia will revolt to overthrow Vladimir Putin.

Furthermore, Latvia, which will be one of the countries to suffer from Russia's counter-sanctions the most, was the one to provoke other European Union (EU) countries to impose these sanctions, said Usakovs.

Usakovs said that the only way how Russia's aggression could be stopped is to hold diplomatic negotiations.

He believes that currently the Latvian government is unable to achieve much in order to help the local business owners. One option would be to reduce the value added tax on food products. Furthermore, if the EU is unable to help the Baltic States, Latvia will have to start considering protectionism and support its producers.

If Russia decides to expand its retaliatory sanctions, a dramatic crisis will follow. If it affects Latvian Railway, the government will be unable to do anything – rails will have to dismantled and sold for scrap, Usakovs said.

He added that he plans on going to Russia in the near future to meet with representatives of those supermarkets where the "Rizhskiy Dvorik" stands are located, asking them to keep the stands. He believes that there is a little hope that the war in Ukraine will end, and that Latvian products will be able to return to Russian market.