The data also show Rimsevics has visited Russia regularly in recent years — making at least 8 trips since 2010. Most of those were before Latvia was allowed into the EU's currency union, the euro, in 2014 and before the invasion of the Crimean Peninsula that triggered Western sanctions against Russia. After that, the data show Rimsevics visited Russia via Belarus, a neighboring Russian ally that shares border data with Moscow.
On one trip, in 2010, Rimsevics went on what appears to be a hunting trip, according to photos obtained by the AP. In one of the photos, he is pictured with Dmitry Pilshchikov, who was then the head of the Research Institute of Information Technology, a Russia-owned military tech company later sanctioned by the U.S.
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This defaulted loan, on top of others, contributed to Parex bank's failure in 2008. The Latvian state rescued the bank at a cost of about $1 billion dollars, a colossal sum for Latvia. It was one of the biggest costs in a national financial crisis that increased Latvia's national debt burden six-fold, required a bailout from the International Monetary Fund and ultimately saw a tenth of the population emigrate in search of a better life.
John Christmas, a former employee of Parex bank, said he alerted Rimsevics as far back as 2005, detailing how Parex was operating illegally and not carrying out proper checks on its loans.
"They refused to talk to me," he says. Instead, he says he began receiving death threats and had to flee the country.
Pilnais teksts: https://t.co/WIR7m4SW0U
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