The coast in Jurmala. File photoMINSK, April 30Director of the sanatorium «Belarus» in the Latvian Jurmala, Alexander Gruzdov, said that after freezing the account of the institution, the Latvian authorities expelled him from the country as «a person who poses a potential threat to national security.» «We complied with the requirements, stopped the activities (of the sanatorium — ed.) … I was deported, deprived of a residence permit with the right to work, which I was granted for the period of work under the contract by the head of the sanatorium, and immediately expelled from the country as a person posing a potential threat to the national security of Latvia … I left for Belarus,» Gruzdov said in an interview with the TV channel » Belarus 1. He stressed that for seven years he headed the sanatorium, which was engaged exclusively in recovery, and had never been associated with either the special services or the armed forces. Meanwhile, the director said that before his departure, representatives of the Latvian special services, who did not give their names, had spoken to him twice: he was offered to sign papers on the non-recognition of Alexander Lukashenko as the legitimate president of Belarus and on the condemnation of the Russian military special operation in Ukraine, but he refused. Gruzdov also noted that more last year, the sanatorium's payments to and from Belarus were blocked, and in the middle of this March, the sanatorium learned about the complete blocking of his account, although he did not receive official notifications. According to the director, after a number of requests from the sanatorium, the Latvian authorities allowed the bank where the account was opened to carry out operations to pay salaries to employees, pay for housing and communal services and tax payments.
The Prime Minister of Belarus said that the «sanctioned» enterprises are working well Gruzdov said that as a result of the imposed restrictions, 180 local employees of the sanatorium were fired, leaving only about 15 people to protect the property of the sanatorium, which is the property of Belarus and a subordinate organization for managing the affairs of the Belarusian president. The director emphasized that in previous years the sanatorium annually paid about 1.2 million euros in taxes in Latvia. Gruzdov also noted that in the past two years, due to covid restrictions, there were no Belarusians among the vacationers, but about 3 thousand Latvians and residents of European countries annually rested in it. Earlier, the administration of the sanatorium reported that due to sanctions , the reception and accommodation of vacationers has been stopped since April 20. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and , on March 25, completed the main tasks of the first stage — significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
