Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said he supported a second term for President Egils Levits, who as the Baltic nation’s head of state has been harshly critical of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
(Bloomberg) — Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said he supported a second term for President Egils Levits, who as the Baltic nation’s head of state has been harshly critical of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
While Levits is yet to declare his candidacy, his period in office is due to end in July. The former judge at the European Court of Justice and Court of Human Rights has excoriated Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and called for a special tribunal to deal with the war.
“I maintain very good cooperation with Mr. Levits, and I would support his reelection,” Karins said in an interview with TV3 on Wednesday. “I still haven’t spoken to party members, but I haven’t heard any bad reviews from anyone.”
The president and his family left Latvia in 1972, when some dissident Jews were allowed to leave the Soviet Union, before settling in Germany and attending the country’s only Latvian school. Karins, who was born in the U.S. to Latvian refugees, attended the same school in Muenster, where Levits was one of his teachers.
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