Ethnic Russian mayor of Latvian capital Riga has ‘no plans to resign’ after police searches

The mayor of the Latvian capital Riga, Nil Ushakov, said on Wednesday that he has no plans to resign. He made the statement after officers of the anti-corruption bureau KNAB conducted searches at his office and home, LETA reported. The KNAB already conducted searches on the premises of the Riga City Council on December 11 last year. The operational actions were reportedly related to the corruption scandal around the municipal enterprise Rigas Satiksme. The new minister of environment and regional development in the Latvian government said that he was ready to consider dismissing Ushakov if any violations of the law on his part would be found and proved. Ushakov calls himself “a Russian-speaking Latvian and patriot of my country.” He has been mayor of Riga, where about half of the population are Russian speakers, since 2009. Ushakov’s party, Harmony, won the largest number of votes in 2011 and last autumn, but it was kept out of government by a coalition of parties supported more by ethnic Latvians.