Riga Bombing 1998
Encyclopedia
At 1:50am on April 2, 1998, a bomb exploded outside a 92-year old synagogue in Riga
's historic Old Town, causing severe damage to the synagogue
and surrounding buildings. The bomb which was supposedly caused by Fascist extremists was reportedly placed on the front steps of the synagogue building. The bomb caused extensive damage including tearing out the 200-lb oak door, destroying all the windows and casings of the basement and first and second floors, and leaving deep gouges in the wall. However there were no casualties.
Just 4 days after the April 2 bombing another bomb caused damage to the Russian Embassy building in Riga. As with the April 1 explosion no injuries were caused in the Embassy bombing. The cause of the blast was a set of plastic explosives detonated in a trash bin. The attack was linked with a rise in nationalist and extremist actions that seriously unsettled relations among Latvians
, Jews
and Russians
. Alexander Udaltsev, Russia's ambassador to Latvia
, joined republic leaders in blaming the incident on those trying to drive a wedge between Russians and Latvians. The Russian Foreign Ministry controversially blamed the bombing outside its Riga Embassy on "anti-Russian hysteria recently produced in Latvia and the encouragement of nationalism and extremism", and called for drastic measures to punish those who were guilty.
A few days after the Riga bombings, a monument to Latvian victims of the Holocaust was defaced in the port town of Liepāja
. This was linked to the April 2 bombing and suggested more possible extreme Fascist activity.
March 3: About 1000 mostly-Russian demonstrators gather outside the Riga city government building. Police drive them back with batons
.
March 4: Russian leaders complain about violence shown towards protestors. Condemning Latvian police. Latvian Prime minister Guntars Krasts
speaks out protecting the Latvian Police force.
March 6: Then-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin
openly criticises Guntars Krasts and quotes: "The news of what happened there sent shivers down Russia's spine."
March 16: In Riga, over 500 veterans from Latvia's Waffen-SS
legion march through the center of the capital, prompting bitter condemnations from Moscow. The Russian Foreign ministry reacted causing yet more controversy quoting: "This attention to fascist underlings is shameful for Europe."
March 28: Another demonstration is held at Latvia's embassy in Moscow. Yury Luzhkov, a probable candidate for Russian president makes things worse by saying that "Russians in Latvia have been turned into slaves." The EU stands by Russia.
April 1: The Latvian ministry of economics
says that Russia is already applying low-level sanctions, including slowing down food stuffs at the border and limiting Latvian fishing rights in Russian waters-which has already cost Latvia some 300 million dollars.
April 2: A bomb
goes off in front of a Synagogue
in Riga in the early hours of the morning. The explosion again draws unwanted attention to Latvia-just when things seemed to be quietening down. No one steps forward to take responsibility for the attack, and Riga asks the American FBI for help in finding the perpetrators.
April 3: Latvia's security council, which includes the president and prime minister, calls for the dismissal of the county's military chief for taking part in the Waffen-SS parade the month before. The Latvian leaders also demand the dismissal of Latvia's chief of police for failing to prevent the synagogue bombing. With investors nervous about the impact of possible Russian sanctions, Riga's stock market
tumbles.
April 4: Latvian President Ulmanis expresses concern that bad press has damaged the country's prospects of joining the EU.
April 6: A small explosive goes off in a trash bin just across the street from the Russian embassy in central Riga. Moscow says the explosion is even further proof that extremism is rampant in Latvia. The Latvian press says the bombing at the embassy has all the hallmarks of the Russian secret service. Behind closed doors, Latvian officials also say they are being railroaded. In public, they condemn the bombings and again request the assistance of the FBI.
April 8: The largest party in the multi-party coalition, the center-left Saimnieks, announces that it is leaving the government. It criticizes the prime minister for contributing to the deterioration of relations with Russia.
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
's historic Old Town, causing severe damage to the synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
and surrounding buildings. The bomb which was supposedly caused by Fascist extremists was reportedly placed on the front steps of the synagogue building. The bomb caused extensive damage including tearing out the 200-lb oak door, destroying all the windows and casings of the basement and first and second floors, and leaving deep gouges in the wall. However there were no casualties.
Just 4 days after the April 2 bombing another bomb caused damage to the Russian Embassy building in Riga. As with the April 1 explosion no injuries were caused in the Embassy bombing. The cause of the blast was a set of plastic explosives detonated in a trash bin. The attack was linked with a rise in nationalist and extremist actions that seriously unsettled relations among Latvians
Latvians
Latvians or Letts are the indigenous Baltic people of Latvia.-History:Latvians occasionally refer to themselves by the ancient name of Latvji, which may have originated from the word Latve which is a name of the river that presumably flowed through what is now eastern Latvia...
, Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
and Russians
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
. Alexander Udaltsev, Russia's ambassador to Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
, joined republic leaders in blaming the incident on those trying to drive a wedge between Russians and Latvians. The Russian Foreign Ministry controversially blamed the bombing outside its Riga Embassy on "anti-Russian hysteria recently produced in Latvia and the encouragement of nationalism and extremism", and called for drastic measures to punish those who were guilty.
A few days after the Riga bombings, a monument to Latvian victims of the Holocaust was defaced in the port town of Liepāja
Liepaja
Liepāja ; ), is a republican city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea directly at 21°E. It is the largest city in the Kurzeme Region of Latvia, the third largest city in Latvia after Riga and Daugavpils and an important ice-free port...
. This was linked to the April 2 bombing and suggested more possible extreme Fascist activity.
May 1995 Bombings
The April 2, 1998 attack was the second bomb attack on the synagogue. The Synagogue was targeted on May 6, 1995, but far less damage was caused. There were no indications that this would be followed up by more terrorist attacks.Moscow Bombings
On May 13, 1998, in Moscow, a bomb ripped through the outer wall of the city's Maryina Roshcha synagogue, the center of Moscow's active Lubavitch community. The explosion caused significant damage to the ground floor sanctuary, destroyed cars parked nearby, and caused minor injuries to two people in an adjacent building. No one in the synagogue was hurt. The congregation's original wood synagogue was burned to the ground in 1993, in what was thought at the time to be an accidental fire. The new building, dedicated in 1996, suffered an earlier bomb attack a few months after reopening. The attack was linked in with the synagogue attack in Riga less than a month earlier. However the attacks were carried out in a far more professional way. The New York TimesThe Latvian-Russian Crisis
By the turn of the new year, 1998, hopes were high that Russian-Latvian relations were on the mend. The two countries had their differences of opinion, especially over the status of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Russians in Latvia. But it looked like some kind of an accommodation had been reached. There was even talk about a major breakthrough in relations, with a Latvian-Russian presidential summit apparently in the works. Then, before anyone could understand exactly what was happening—within a matter of hours, it seemed—relations between the two former Soviet republics went into a tailspin.March 3: About 1000 mostly-Russian demonstrators gather outside the Riga city government building. Police drive them back with batons
Club (weapon)
A club is among the simplest of all weapons. A club is essentially a short staff, or stick, usually made of wood, and wielded as a weapon since prehistoric times....
.
March 4: Russian leaders complain about violence shown towards protestors. Condemning Latvian police. Latvian Prime minister Guntars Krasts
Guntars Krasts
Guntars Krasts is a Latvian politician, former Prime Minister, and former Member of the European Parliament for the single Latvia constituency. Born in Riga, he was the Minister of Economy of Latvia from December 1995 to August 1997, Prime Minister of Latvia from August 1997 to November 1998, and...
speaks out protecting the Latvian Police force.
March 6: Then-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin
Viktor Chernomyrdin
Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin was the founder and the first chairman of the Gazprom energy company, the longest serving Prime Minister of Russia and Acting President of Russia for a day in 1996. He was a key figure in Russian politics in the 1990s, and a great contributor to the Russian...
openly criticises Guntars Krasts and quotes: "The news of what happened there sent shivers down Russia's spine."
March 16: In Riga, over 500 veterans from Latvia's Waffen-SS
Waffen-SS
The Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside...
legion march through the center of the capital, prompting bitter condemnations from Moscow. The Russian Foreign ministry reacted causing yet more controversy quoting: "This attention to fascist underlings is shameful for Europe."
March 28: Another demonstration is held at Latvia's embassy in Moscow. Yury Luzhkov, a probable candidate for Russian president makes things worse by saying that "Russians in Latvia have been turned into slaves." The EU stands by Russia.
April 1: The Latvian ministry of economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
says that Russia is already applying low-level sanctions, including slowing down food stuffs at the border and limiting Latvian fishing rights in Russian waters-which has already cost Latvia some 300 million dollars.
April 2: A bomb
Bomb
A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...
goes off in front of a Synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
in Riga in the early hours of the morning. The explosion again draws unwanted attention to Latvia-just when things seemed to be quietening down. No one steps forward to take responsibility for the attack, and Riga asks the American FBI for help in finding the perpetrators.
April 3: Latvia's security council, which includes the president and prime minister, calls for the dismissal of the county's military chief for taking part in the Waffen-SS parade the month before. The Latvian leaders also demand the dismissal of Latvia's chief of police for failing to prevent the synagogue bombing. With investors nervous about the impact of possible Russian sanctions, Riga's stock market
Stock market
A stock market or equity market is a public entity for the trading of company stock and derivatives at an agreed price; these are securities listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately.The size of the world stock market was estimated at about $36.6 trillion...
tumbles.
April 4: Latvian President Ulmanis expresses concern that bad press has damaged the country's prospects of joining the EU.
April 6: A small explosive goes off in a trash bin just across the street from the Russian embassy in central Riga. Moscow says the explosion is even further proof that extremism is rampant in Latvia. The Latvian press says the bombing at the embassy has all the hallmarks of the Russian secret service. Behind closed doors, Latvian officials also say they are being railroaded. In public, they condemn the bombings and again request the assistance of the FBI.
April 8: The largest party in the multi-party coalition, the center-left Saimnieks, announces that it is leaving the government. It criticizes the prime minister for contributing to the deterioration of relations with Russia.