Latvian Central Banker: Naive to Think Europe Is Not at War With Russia

The head of the Latvian Central Bank said Europe was at war with Russia, and Rega was preparing for an invasion.

Latvia’s Central Bank Governor Mārtiņš Kazāks told the Financial Times on Sunday, “It’s naive to think that we are not at war [with Russia].” He added that, while there was no physical conflict, there were regular cyberattacks and acts of sabotage.

The European Union has placed several rounds of sanctions on Russia and supplied billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine. Ukraine has been used as a proxy by the EU and NATO to weaken Russia.

Kazāks argued that the EU needed to continue to support Ukraine to prevent a Russian invasion of another European country. “We have in our hands to make this probability [of direct conflict with Russia] increasingly lower,” he told FT. By supporting Ukraine in a way that Moscow “does not win in Ukraine” and by strengthening European military forces, “to create a view in Russia that [any attack] is a high risk and not even worth contemplating.”

However, Western nations’ support for Ukraine has decimated their ties with Russia, making a conflict more likely.