Latvia has a respectable contingent of 51 athletes at the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi although 25 are from the men’s hockey team. Medal hopes are resting with Latvia’s daredevils, the sliders, the athletes who compete in the skeleton, luge and bobsleigh.

In particular, the pressure is on the Dukurs brothers, Martins and Tomass. Martins is the reigning World Champion four years straight but missed gold in Vancouver by a whisker and had to settle for silver. Tomass had a breakthrough season and has seen a number of podium finishes on this year’s World Cup circuit. Their father Dainis is their coach. They will be competing on February 14 and 15. Here’s hoping they come through.

Latvia’s lugers have picked up medals at the last two Winter Games. At the 2006 in Turin, Mārtiņš Rubenis picked up a bronze while brothers Andris and Juris Sičs picked up a silver in the doubles at Whistler in 2010. The men have already gone and Rubenis finished 10th at Sochi this past weekend and promptly announced his retirement. Other lugers include Oskars Gudramovičs, Pēteris Kalniņš, Imants Kivlenieks, Kristaps Mauriņš, Elza Tīruma and Ulla Zirne. Gudramovičs and Kalniņš have had top 10 World Cup finishes in 2012 and 2013. The women compete on February 10 and 11, the doubles follow on February 12 with the team relay on February 13.

There is a cute story about how the Sičs brothers got started. They lived near Sigulda, home of Latvia’s only sliding course, and would sneak in to try it out. They were caught by a security guard. Rather than being reprimanded, the guard connected them with a qualified coach and the rest is history. 

Latvia has 8 bobsleighers at Sochi. The two four man pilots Oskars Melbārdis and newcomer Oskars Kibermanis have been on the cusp at the World Cup circuit this year with top 10 and even medal finishes. The rest of the team consists of Raivis Broks, Daumants Dreiskēns, Vairis Leiboms, Helvijs Lūsis, Jānis Strenga and Arvis Vilkaste. They are coached by Sandis Prūsis who competed between 1983 and 2003. Back when Latvia was breaking away from the Soviet Union, he was one of many who risked all to man the barricades in the Riga to protect the nascent government from Soviet attack.

The Latvian bobsleighers are big guys all easily topping 6 feet and 200 plus pounds. One American sports announcer recently commented on television that in the United States guys this size become football linebackers while in Latvia they become bobsleighers. The bobsleigh two man event is on February 16 and 17 while the four man crews race February 22 and 23, the last two days of the Games.

Latvia’s hockey team consists primarily of players from Dinamo Rīga and other KHL teams along with two young budding stars, Zemgus Girgensons from the NHL Buffalo Sabres and goaltender Kristaps Gudļevskis vying for a position with the Tampa Bay Lightning, along with players from a number of other top European leagues. They take to the ice on February 12 when they play the Swiss. They follow with games on February 14 against the Czech Republic and the next day against Sweden in the preliminary round. Further games will depend on how they fare. It will be tough for Latvia to advance.

Latvia’s coach Ted Nolan is also the coach of the Buffalo Sabres. He is a seasoned professional and junior coach and a Native Canadian from the Ojibway nation in Northern Ontario. Nolan has garnered a lot of attention and recently was featured in the Wall Street Journal and how as a Native Canadian he can relate to a small nation like Latvia and the importance of its language – http://online.wsj.com/article/AP6879990d85e74564834f0c58bdd14492.html

The captain of the hockey team is Latvian legend Sandis Ozoliņš, the only Latvian to win the NHL’s Stanley Cup back in 1996 with the Colorado Avalanche. He is currently captain of the Dinamo Rīga team in the KHL. A seven time NHL all-star, he was chosen to be Latvia’s flag bearer at the Opening Ceremonies in Sochi.

While much has been made of Latvia’s orange-brown official uniforms with some commentators calling them downright ugly, this author liked them and pointed instead to the fluorescent green Lithuanian uniforms, the American sweaters that reminded him of tacky Christmas sweaters or the tourist billboard on the Tongan uniforms as being more likely contenders for uniforms off the mark.

Rounding off Latvia’s team at Sochi are downhill skiers Inese Āboltiņa who at 18 is the youngest member, Lelde Gasuma, Martiņš Onskulis, Roberts Rode and Kristaps Zvejnieks, cross-country skiers Inga Dauškane, Jānis Paipals and Aivars Liepiņš, women’s skeleton competitor Lelde Priedulaine, biathlon competitors Zane Juskāne and Andrejs Rastorgujevs, as well as short track skaters Roberto Puķītis and Haralds Silovs. They are not expected to come close to medals.

Latvian sports fans have a number of sites they can use to follow the games including http://sportacentrs.com/soci_2014/ ,  http://www.diena.lv/sochi2014 and http://www.sochi2014.com/en/team-latvia.

Speech at the Foreign Policy Debate in the Saeima on 23 January 2014

As a member of the Saeima and the Head of the Latvian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) I am interested in the policy that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has planned on several issues: non-citizens and citizenship, temporary Latvian residence permits, specific actions and the interest of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in defending national interests abroad, as well as explaining historical issues of great importance to the Latvian titular nation to the international community.

To my mind, the identification of long-term foreign policy goals is an essential part of the report by the Minister for Foreign Affairs; however, this report does not contain such a section. Compared to reports from previous years, this report is, as always, a technocratic one. I hope that eventually the report on foreign policy will also include the strategic tasks in Latvia’s foreign policy and a long-term goal for at least up to 2020.

In May 2013 at the conference on OSCE Security Community from Vancouver to Vladivostok: Reality or Illusion, http://www.nacionalaapvieniba.lv/aktualitate/drosibas-kopiena-iluzija-vai-realitate/ which I organised together with Inese Vaidere, Member of the European Parliament, and the Centre for East European Policy Studies, it was advised that scientists, members of the Saeima and the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should cooperate more. This conference was the first attempt to hold a debate in Latvia about new security risks, challenges and threats with the involvement of academics and politicians. The debates at the conference acknowledged that Russia’s soft power is becoming an increasingly important threat and destabilising factor when used to doubt the legal succession of the state of Latvia and to undermine the constitutional foundation of Latvia. In this way the soft power is attempting to change the security structure of Europe, which was created after the Cold War, by restoring the lines of separation and areas of influence of the USSR. Therefore, I cannot agree with those members of the Saeima who say that Latvia is not facing any threats.

Today, Latvia’s fragmented education and media scene is the firing range of Russia’s soft power, which is facilitating disassociation among communities thus creating a significant threat to the country. The participants of the conference supported the idea that Russia’s soft power could be limited by forming a unified education area with unified history and social studies curricula for all schools, as opposed to a linguistically and ideologically fragmented school system. Insufficiently active reconfirmation of the principle of legal succession at the national level leaves Latvia in an uncertain status in the security grey zone on the outskirts of the EU and NATO.

In 2013 in the Saeima I met with Lamberto Zannier, Secretary General of the OSCE, who welcomed the aforementioned conference viewing it as a continuation of the Security Days event in Vienna, which he initiated and where non-military security was discussed with historians, diplomats and representatives of other sectors. Zannier expressed interest in attending the next such conference in Latvia, which I am planning to organise again this year. I shared the conclusions from the conference regarding socially unifying education and many other issues related to the Latvian language policy with Astrid Thors, High Commissioner on National Minorities, when we met with her in the Saeima while her candidacy for this post was being evaluated.

I witnessed the fact that Latvia is being left in the security grey zone in Warsaw in the autumn of 2013 at a conference on human rights organised by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). Latvia’s situation was objectively described by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, myself, as a representative of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, and two other representatives of non-governmental institutions. The Warsaw conference was attended by representatives of many human rights NGOs from Latvia, Russia and other countries, who stated many distorted facts and expressed unfounded admonitions for Latvia and the other Baltic States regarding the status of national minorities. Valery Engel, representative of World Without Nazism, who has appeared at events in Latvia together with politicians of Concorde Centre, spoke against Latvia’s policy on language, citizenship and minorities. Spiegel, Kuzmin, Solopenko and others were among the registered participants. The Anti-Fascist Committee of Latvia was represented by Joseph Koren, who spoke together with Engel on aggressive nationalism and xenophobia in modern Europe. (see also http://www.nacionalaapvieniba.lv/aktualitate/ar-latvijai-naidigo-maigo-varu-jacinas-gan-edso-gan-citas-sferas/ )

My advice to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to purposefully seek out other real (instead of foreign government financed) NGOs and urge them to take part in the annual conference in Warsaw and other similar events.

I would like to share my experience regarding a letter I sent as an MP in September 2013 asking the Minister of Foreign Affairs to answer several questions regarding amendments to the Immigration Law on temporary residence permits, which were adopted on 1 July 2010 and are currently one of the hot topics on the agenda of the Saeima. Unfortunately, the acting State Secretary on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs did not answer several of my questions, but thanked me for my interest in the issue and offered data from the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs on the situation on 1 August 2013.

As foreign policy is an extension of internal affairs, I would like to see an interest shown in solving issues that are existential to Latvia. It is known that resolution of the temporary residence permits issue (alongside the national security policy and education in the official language, which would unify society) is one of the most pressing and crucial factors affecting the existence of Latvia as a national state. Immigration is an increasingly important issue not only in Latvia, but throughout the EU. It will be one of the main topics in the coming elections and further agenda of the European Parliament. Values and interests must be balanced within foreign policy. Technocrats are interested in the banking union and other economic issues, whilst European citizens are interested in their civic hopes – immigration trends, language, identity, self-determination, welfare and democracy. There are contradictions between the technocratic approach to EU policy and the hopes of European citizens not only in Catalonia, but also in Scotland and elsewhere. It is important for Latvia to understand this and include it in the long-term goals of foreign policy.

In foreign policy at EU level, there is a great need for closer cooperation with other national parliaments.

European citizens are also interested in employment and actual jobs, instead of the abstract numbers of GDP and national debt. We must ask whether direct foreign investment, which has been deemed a panacea that will save the world, will really aid Latvia’s growth. If a new crisis hits, will the foreign investors not migrate to economically more active regions thus deepening the crisis in Latvia even further?

As a member of the Saeima, I am not clear on whether the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wished to take part in solving crucial internal issues with the help of foreign policy. How does it plan on doing so during the term of this government?

It is also unclear what the actors of Latvian foreign policy plan to do regarding the rapid integration among post-communist countries – the already existing Customs Union and the emerging Eurasian Union, which aims to expand up to the borders of the former USSR. Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kirgizstan have, in effect, already agreed to participate in the bloc lead by Russia. What will happen with Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine this year? It is evident that neither the Eastern Partnership, nor Association Agreements can hinder the expansion of the post-communistic empire. The events in Ukraine demonstrate this very clearly. What will happen next? How far will Europe allow this process to go? Where are Latvia’s new ideas and proactive measures? What are our proposals as we approach our presidency of the Council of the EU?

Failure to answer these questions seems like an ostrich policy, and the results could be grave. The fact that this government will only be in office until the end of the year is not an excuse for inaction.

Take note of two names – Zemgus Girgensons and Kristers Gudļevskis. Just out of junior ranks, they’re making a statement. They’re here and ready for prime time.

Forward Zemgus Girgensons, the highest ever Latvian player drafted into the NHL, was only nineteen at the start of this season yet he has nailed down a position with the Buffalo Sabres. Even though Buffalo has been one of the weakest teams this year, Girgensons has shown he can play shoulder-to-shoulder against the world’s best hockey players. Coincidentally his coach Ted Nolan has also been the coach of Latvia’s national team for the past two years. Recently Nolan paid Girgensons a compliment by comparing him to retired hockey super-star Wayne Gretzky in his youth.

A year ago, lanky twenty one year old goaltender Kristers Gudļevskis was playing with the Dinamo Juniors in Riga. He was Latvia’s third string goalie at last year’s World Championships. But when the top two faltered, Nolan tapped him on the shoulder and Gudļevskis seized the opportunity and starred. A month later, the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning grabbed him and Gudļevskis ended up in their training camp. Gudļevskis was first sent down to the Lightning’s farm team in the ECHL two levels below the NHL, but by mid-season, he was up with the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL only one level below the NHL. He has posted excellent numbers and was even named AHL player of the week in January. It appears that the Lightning are betting on Gudļevskis maturing into a NHL goaltender. Gudļevskis will likely be Latvia’s starter at the Sochi games. Goaltending has been a hit and miss proposition for Latvia since the heyday of legendary Arturs Irbe and Gudļevskis might be the answer.

This season the last two of a promising crop of players born between 1986 and 1988 played out their NHL dreams and headed back to Europe. Even though forward Kaspars Daugaviņš spent last year’s abbreviated lock-out season with the Ottawa Senators and Boston Bruins, he was not offered a return contract. He joined Geneva Servette in the Swiss League. The pay is good, the road trips are short, the living conditions are excellent and the level of play is high. Daugaviņš is one of the team’s top forwards and over the Christmas break helped Servette win the Spengler Cup awarded to the winner of a long standing prestigious six team invitational tournament hosted by Switzerland’s Davos Hockey Club. Daugaviņš made the tournament’s all-star team.

Arturs Kulda had played a handful of games with the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers and Winnipeg Jets but spent last season in Russia’s KHL. After his KHL season ended, the Jets signed him for the final month. He practiced with the team but never saw action and the best the Jets would offer Kulda this season was a two way contract unwilling to guarantee him a position with the big team. Kulda returned to the KHL and signed a two year deal with Ufa. He is among the team’s top defensemen and will be a stalwart for Latvia at Sochi.

Ten or fifteen years ago, there was a host of players from Latvia in North America’s minor pro leagues. These days they are few and far between. The exception this year is defenceman Ēriks Sevčenko from Daugavpils who is playing in the ECHL with the San Francisco Bulls. Unless a player has been spotted by the NHL, most players opt to play in Europe. The pay is better than North America’s minor pros and there are benefits playing close to home. 

There are however a host of juniors from Latvia playing in North America hoping for the big break. At the top are five in Canada’s three major junior leagues. Nineteen year old forwards Roberts Lipsbergs of the Seattle Thunderbirds and Edgars Kulda of the Edmonton Oil Kings are playing their second year in the WHL. Forward Nikita Jevpalovs is also back north of Montreal with the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada of the QMJHL. Eighteen year old forward Rihards Bukarts is with the Brandon Wheat Kings of the WHL as is Georgs Golovkovs with Quebec’s Drummondville Voltigeurs. All five are among the top players on their teams.

Forward Haralds Egle is playing in the USHL with Michigan’s Muskegon Lumberjacks but has not been able to put up the numbers. The USHL is the top junior league in the USA but a notch below Canada’s major junior leagues. The NAHL is a level below the USHL and three players from Latvia are on the Soo Eagles in Northern Michigan. They are defenceman Kristofers Bindulis and forwards Bruno Birzītis and Sandis Zolmanis. Kristaps Bažēvics is with the Wichita Wildcats also of the NAHL.

Among the juniors, Jevpalovs and Bindulis have attracted attention and are on the list of prospects prepared by the NHL’s Central Scouting Bureau. That doesn’t mean other players don’t have a chance but the odds are against them.

There are probably at least a dozen younger players from Latvia scattered from coast to coast playing high school and lower level junior hockey in the USA. Canada restricts imports from Europe to just two on each major junior team while the USA also has restrictions but unlike Canada, Europeans can play at any level.

Two players are with tier-1 NCAA university teams in the USA. Teodors Blūgers, a draft pick of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, is a sophomore at Minnesota State University Mankota while Ralfs Freibergs is also in his second year with Bowling State Green. Twenty two year old Freibergs was selected for Latvia’s team at Sochi.

Lipsbergs, Kulda, Jevpalovs, Golovkos, Egle, Birzītis and Bažēvics joined Latvia’s Under 20 (U20) team at the tier two World Championships in December held in Poland. The exclusion of Bindulis was a surprise. The U20 juniors were charged with winning the tournament and returning to the elite level next year. They failed and lost in the key game against Denmark. This was disappointing particularly to Latvian fans in Eastern Canada who had hoped to come out and cheer Latvia next year when the elite championships are being hosted in Toronto and Montreal. There is still a chance that the following year Latvia could be up when the championship will also be played in the same two cities.

Latvia’s Under 18 (U18) team is also in the tier two division. Their championship will be held this April in France and like the U20 juniors, they will try to win a ticket to the elite level. Latvia’s women are stuck in tier two and unlikely to move up at their championships that will be held in Ventspils this April. With less than 100 female players, there is not enough skill and depth to make the leap.

Dinamo Riga has had a successful season so far in the KHL, the world’s strongest league after the NHL. Last year Dinamo finished out of the play-offs but took the Cup of Hope, derided by some as the Loser’s Cup, beating other also-rans. In the early part of this season they were among the league’s top teams but since then have dropped in the standings but in January still sit comfortable at 7th in the 14 team western conference. The bulk of Dinamo consists of players from Latvia although there is also a Swede, a Czech, several Canadians and Slovaks on the roster. Dinamo is a low budget team so you won’t see any big stars in its line-up. They are captained by Latvian hockey legend 41 year old Sandis Ozoliņš.

Hockey Club (HK) Riga serves both as a farm and a development team for Dinamo’s top players under 22 years. It plays in Russia’s MHL junior loop and in January was in the top six of the 20 team western conference. Dinamo Juniors is also part of the Dinamo system. Most of its players are between 17 and 19 and the role of the team is to develop young local talent. The Juniors play in the semi-professional Latvian Championship with players of various ages competing on six teams – Kurbads, Riga/Prizma, Zemgale/LLU, Dinamo Juniors, Ozolnieki/Monarch and Daugavpils. Sadly after many years there is no team from Liepaja after the sponsor steel mill Metalurgs went bankrupt.

The best players from Latvia not in North America are in the KHL, the majority with Dinamo Riga although Bārtulis, Kulda, Karsums, M. Redlihs and Sprukts went for more money with other KHL teams. Some play in other top European leagues. Veteran Vasiljevs plays in Germany’s top loop while Daugaviņš and Ķēniņš are in the top Swiss league. Others play in various mostly second tier European, Russian, Belarussian, Ukrainian and Kazakhstani leagues. Most of these players are journeymen who bounce from one league to another from one year to the next.

Twenty two year old Ronalds Ķēniņš is now the property of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks but he was loaned out to the Zurich Lions to play out his second and last contract year with the Swiss team. Next year he will most likely be with Vancouver’s top AHL farm team the Chicago Wolves.

At the start of January, Latvia’s national team head coach Ted Nolan announced the 25 player roster for the Winter Olympic Games at Sochi. They include – Goaltenders: Kristers Gudļevskis (Syracuse „Crunch” AHL), Ervīns Muštukovs („Esbjerg” Denmark), Edgars Masaļskis („Poprad” Slovakia); Defence: Sandis Ozoliņš, Arvīds Reķis, Georgijs Pujacs, Krišjānis Rēdlihs, Kristaps Sotnieks (all from „Dinamo” Riga KHL), Oskars Bārtulis (Doņetsk „Donbass” KHL), Arturs Kulda (Ufa „Salavat Julajev” KHL), Ralfs Freibergs (Bowling Green State NCAA); Forwards: Miks Indrašis, Mārtiņš Cipulis, Vitālijs Pavlovs, Lauris Dārziņš (all from „Dinamo” Riga KHL), Mārtiņš Karsums (Moscow „Dinamo” KHL), Miķelis Rēdlihs , Jānis Sprukts (both from Jaroslav „Lokomotiv” KHL), Ronalds Ķēniņš (Zurich „ZSC Lions”), Kaspars Daugaviņš (Geneva „Servette”), Herberts Vasiļjevs (Kreifeld „Pinguine” DEL), Koba Jass (Liberec „Bili Tygri” Czech Republic), Juris Štāls („Poprad” Slovakia), Armands Bērziņš (Atyrau „Beybaris” Kazakhstan), Zemgus Girgensons (Buffalo „Sabres” NHL).

As a coach, Nolan had NHL, AHL and Canadian major junior coaching experience before being named as Buffalo’s head coach in November. During his tenure with the Latvian team, he has made it clear that no one has a guaranteed spot on the team. Everyone, veterans and rookies alike, need to earn a position. It’s not just about skill and performance but also about character and having the right attitude. Nolan won’t take a player who will sulk if assigned to the third or fourth line with less ice time. He wants someone who knows his role and what’s expected.

Unlike Latvia’s bobsleigh, luge and especially skeleton athletes who expect a medal or two at Sochi, Latvia’s hockey team is just happy to be there. The Winter Games run from February 7-23. Twelve countries have qualified in hockey. They have been divided into three groups. Latvia will play Switzerland on February 7, the Czech Republic on February 14 and a day later Sweden. Further play will depend on results. The first four teams will automatically advance to the quarterfinals. The remaining four will be the winners of the 5th vs 12th place, 6th vs 11th, etc. games. For Latvia to advance, it will need an upset against a stronger team. That will be tough but Latvian sports fans should remember that it’s an accomplishment just to qualify for the Games. These will be the fourth consecutive Winter Olympic Games for Latvia’s hockey team.