Alliance of Young Latvians (Latvian: Apvienība Jaunlatvieši, AJ) is a Latvian political party founded on February 11, 2023.[2] The party board includes former members of For Each and Every One (now Platform 21) Rūdolfs Brēmanis, Edgars Dārznieks and Artūrs Klēbahs. The party claims to stand for Latvian protectionism, a popularly elected president and reduction of bureaucracy and states that Latvia "must be independent from the East or the West".[3] The party had one member of the Saeima, former member of For Stability!Glorija Grevcova.
Brēmanis, a former charge- d'affaires at the Latvian embassy in the United Arab Emirates, is the main suspect in case about a possible embezzlement scheme involving the service apartments of the foreign service. Public Broadcasting of Latvia also reported that Brēmanis might have engaged in the residency permits-for-investment business while still being in the diplomatic service.[4]
European Parliament Elections (2024)
In the 2024 elections to the European Parliament, the party fielded the Russophonehomemaker Olga Čerņavska (Russian: Ольга Чернявская),[5][6] who previously had not been active in politics. In the campaigning period, Latvia's State Security Service investigated her statements that were considered to be anti-Latvian and pro-Russian.[7] In mid-June 2024, she defected to Belarus, claiming 'electoral falsification' and 'death threats.'[8] The propaganda of the regime of Alexander Lukashenko has used her to publish content that attacks Latvian government and other institutions by using pro-Russian narratives (which is similar to the case of the Polish judge Tomasz Szmydt who defected to Belarus in May 2024).[9][10][11]
In Belarus, Čerņavska joined former COVID-19 misinformation activist Romāns Samuļs (Latvian: Роман Самуль).[12][13] He had defected from Latvia to Belarus in 2022,[14] after having failed to win a mandate to the Latvian Parliament.[15] In Belarus, Samul acts as a leader of a group of disillusioned Russophones from Latvia for the sake of anti-Latvian propaganda.[16][17]
