Energy, Latvia, Legislation

Aivars Lembergs.

"I did not do what several very influential moneybags had asked me to do, for instance, regarding VN," Lembergs reveals. He explains that he was asked to ensure that VN be acquired by an unnamed U.S. billionaire, but he refused do this. "Then there were other guys from the United States who wanted to get Latvijas Dzelzcels [Latvian Railroad Company], the same way the Estonian railroad company was sold. I told them, over my dead body. If they privatized Latvijas Dzelzcels, that would mean an end for Latvia's ports. It was not in Latvia's interest, nor in interests of Ventspils, Riga or Liepaja ports."

The unnamed person that Lembergs refers to wished to receive VN as a "present" from the state of Latvia. "He wanted to arrange it so that the state of Latvia would be paid with VN's own money for the VN shares, with money that the company would hypothetically earn in the future. He could lay down such bold rules because he could phone the U.S. president any time he wanted, as well as the Latvian president – be it day or night."

Lembergs stresses that after he refused to help the U.S. billionaire, the prosecutor's office launched a probe in Lembergs' business. "It happened in 2003. That exact year [Prosecutor General Janis] Maizitis reopened a probe against me," Lembergs said, stressing that the probe was resumed after he refused to help the U.S. billionaire.

In the interview, Lembergs also criticizes the United States' foreign policy and its relations with Iraq and Afghanistan, also with Latvia, which is "a colony for the United States".

As reported, Lembergs was arrested on March 14 last year, the Riga Regional Court changed his custody to house arrest last July. On February 22 the Kurzeme District Court lifted the house arrest but set a number of other restrictions for Lembergs.

In May Lembergs turned to the Justice Ministry with a request to compensate him LVL 104,450 for being wrongly accused in the so-called "Grinbergs affair".