Russian version
According to the official site of the Office of the Latvian President, this man currently holds "the position of Vice-Head of the Chancery on Cooperation with Advisers". Behind this rather vague job description hides one of the most influential officials of the Latvian ruling apparatus…
Sinologist from Vladivostok
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| Andrejs Pildegovichs |
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Andrejs Pildegovichs belongs to the generation of the young Latvian managers, which rose to the top of the local administration’s Olympus on the wave of the violent changes of the post-Communist epoch. At the same time, his biography, as well as the history of his family, is unusual enough for today's Latvia.
His father, Peteris Pildegovichs, is the native of the Latvian city of Daugavpils' surrounding. From his early years he took a great interest in sinology. Later he graduated from the Eastern Languages' Department of the Moscow University (1964-1970), and together with his wife, Galina, worked in this sphere in Vladivostok for 10 years (a city on the Pacific coast of the Russian Far East). There, three of his sons were born, including Andrejs, who was called at that time by the Russian name Andrey. For a year, Peteris was a probationary in Singapore. In addition, he studied in Korea, India, and Israel. In 1988, he worked on probation for the second time, this time in Shanghai. Already in 2004, he admitted to the correspondent of one of the Latvian newspapers that though he speaks Latvian, he is Latvian only by passport, as the major part of his life he spent far from his native land, having devoted himself to studying China.
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Peteris Pildegovichs |
Andrejs Pildegovichs was born in 1970, in Vladivostok. His future profession was determined by his father's influence. In 1989, at the age of 19, Pildegovichs Junior began his studies at the Eastern Languages Faculty of the Leningrad (today St. Petersburg) University. In 1991, within the framework of his studies, Andrejs went to Tibet, and then remained in China for a year, within the framework of language training. As a result, for a European he acquired a very rare and unusual level of both knowledge of and speaking ability in Chinese. His wife, a teacher of eastern languages, also speaks Chinese fluently.
Already at the beginning of the 1990s, Andrejs' parents returned to independent Latvia. Andrejs stayed in Russia for several more years to finish his studies.
Their native country had a use for the unique knowledge and skills of the father and son Pildegovichs. Peteris Pildegovichs, after several years of teaching at the Latvian University and working as the head of the Department of Asia and Africa in the central apparatus of the Latvian Ministry of
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| Andrejs Pildegovichs and the President |
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Foreign Affairs, went on to open the first Latvian embassy in Beijing (1998). At the same time Andrejs studied in the framework of an international program in Oxford and London, and later, like his father, worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he supervised the press-service. His knowledge of Chinese was also very useful, as, except for his father, there are almost no experts at his level in Latvia today.
In July, 1999, as the office of the new President of Latvia Vaira Vike-Freiberga was being organized, the talented young employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was invited to join the President’s team as an adviser on issues of world policy. Since then, Andrejs Pildegovichs plays one of the leading roles in defining the character of the President’s foreign activity. All her visits, statements at international forums, and also considerable international authority (up to the possible promotion of her nominee to the post of the Secretary General of the United Nations) are, to a great extent, the result of Pildegovichs-junior's activity. This is a unique situation for today's Latvia, as he was born in Russia, who considers Russian as his mother tongue, and before his arrival in Riga in the middle of the 1990s, had almost nothing in common with his historical motherland.
In the meantime, Pildegovichs-senior has returned from China. At the moment, his name is listed among the members of the Faculty of Modern Languages of the Latvian State University where he teaches Chinese.
Speaking Russian with Russia
Despite his Russian origin, Andrejs Pildegovichs' position concerning Russia fits the national interests of his historical native land - Latvia. It was in this connection that his name appeared in the press for the first time. It occurred in
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Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Vladimir Putin, and Andrejs Pildegovichs |
October 1996, when, after yet another unsuccessful round of negotiations on the frontier issue, Russia declared its intention to delimitate the border unilaterally. Pildegovichs, who had recently finished his studies in St. Petersburg and had been appointed the press secretary of the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, declared the Russian position unacceptable and called on Moscow to try to look at the problem from the Latvian point of view.
In February 1998, as a press secretary of the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pildegovichs voiced his superiors' position concerning the Russian radar-tracking station in the Latvian town of Skrunda. In the past, this station had been one the major links in the Soviet anti-missile defense system, and was rented by the Russians since 1991. The lease expired in August 1998, and the Latvian leadership, through Pildegovichs, informed the Russians of its refusal to extend the lease. Three months later, in May 1998, Pildegovichs issued an official statement accusing Moscow of unwillingness to conduct a meaningful dialogue with Riga and, in addition, of distributing obviously false information concerning the Latvian policy of granting citizenship.
After moving into the Office of the President, Andrejs Pildegovichs repeatedly voiced the position of the head of the state on Russian issues, which frequently corresponded to his own position. For example, on November 13, 2001, two months
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| Vladimir Putin and Andrejs Pildegovichs |
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after the terrorist attack on the USA, he declared: "The events after September 11th have proved the logic behind the process of Europe's unification, and also the correctness of the choice made by Latvia and other countries of Central Europe. Russia also should understand, that prompt solving of a border problem with neighboring countries fully corresponds to its national interests, including in the sphere of the struggle against terrorism". It must be noted that he said that in Warsaw, at the meeting of the heads of the 17 countries of Eastern and Central Europe, who declared their readiness to support the US effort in the fight against international terrorism. Latvia is obligated to Pildegovichs-junior for its joining the antiterrorist coalition and for rapprochement with Washington.
As the time passed, the presidential foreign policy adviser's rhetoric on questions concerning Russia became even more rigid. In September 2002, Andrejs Pildegovichs made an official statement according to which Moscow's assertions on possible accommodation of NATO's nuclear arsenals in Latvian territory are completely baseless. In February 2004, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia openly confronted the Kremlin by refusing to issue an entry visa to the vice-President of the Russian Parliament, Dmitry Rogozin. Pildegovichs declared in this context to the Latvian radio: "Mister Rogozin has not shown a true desire to conduct a dialogue with Latvia, to understand its internal situation, to consider the context of historical events. This person cannot be ranked among the partners and friends of Latvia".
And, finally, in May 2005, Pildegovichs declared that the Declaration on Cooperation, suggested by the Russian side as an appendix to the agreement on the border, is completely unacceptable to Riga as "it does not contain any mention of Hitler and Stalin's collusion, which was the reason for Latvia's loss of independence for almost 50 years".
Speaking Chinese with China
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| Jiang Zemin and Vaira Vike-Freiberga |
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Certainly, Andrejs Pildegovichs’ activity as a global policy adviser to the President is not limited only to the Russian direction. In June 2002, he directly applied his sinologist's skills by actively participating in the preparation and carrying out of a two-day visit of the Chinese President Jiang Zemin to Riga. Both Pildegovichs' - father and son - in Beijing and in Riga prepared this visit, which turned out to be extremely successful and created a basis for further fruitful cooperation between the two countries. Almost two years later, in April 2004, Pildegovichs organized a visit by the Latvian President, accompanied by a large Latvian delegation, to Beijing and Hong Kong with the same level of success. That was the second of two visits of its President to China in the history of independent Latvia (the first one took place in 1994, when the Chinese capital was visited by Guntis Ulmanis). During Vaira Vike-Freiberga's visit, several Latvian-Chinese agreements, primarily in the sphere of economical cooperation, were signed. Latvia, as well as the other Baltic states, is considered by China to be an important transit point on the way to Europe.
NATO - the Main Ally
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American President's visit to Latvia. First on the right – Andrejs Pildegovichs |
The main sphere of Andrejs Pildegovichs' activity became Latvia's joining NATO and the EU (2004), and the abovementioned strengthening of strategic relations with the USA. As the President's adviser, he repeatedly expressed Latvia’s aspiration to finish both processes smoothly. In June 2003, he declared that Latvia would actively reform its armed forces, so that they would comply with NATO standards, and they would then be able to bring a more ponderable contribution to the activity of this organization. Pildegovichs' considerable contribution to the decision of the leadership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to host its next summit in Riga, in November 2006, is also marked. The most recent Pildegovichs' success in this direction was the organization of the Latvian President’s visit to the USA, at the end of February – beginning of March 2006.
In this context, the successful development of Latvian-Israeli relations should be mentioned. In the second half of February 2006, the Latvian President visited Israel, accompanied by the Minister of Finance, Oskars Spurdzins, the Minister of Economics, Krisjanis Karins, and the Minister of Agriculture, Martins Roze. This trip was organized by Pildegovichs as well, and was considered by him to have been a significant event in the foreign policy of his country. Both states carry on fruitful dialogue in the context of the European Union and NATO.
Supporting Belarus Opposition
Yet another, new direction on which Pildegovichs has been working for the last year and a half is maintaining contacts with the representatives of the Belarusian opposition. The Office of the Latvian President and the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs are working on this issue together with their colleagues from Lithuania and Poland. It is important to note that the present head of the Latvian diplomatic department, Artis Pabriks, issued several impartial statements in the address to the present Belarusian leadership, as did his predecessors, Rihards Piks and Sandra Kalniete, before him. As for Pildegovichs, in December 2004, his meeting with two sons of the well-known Belarusian political prisoner Mikhail Marinich - Igor and Pavel - became known.
Conclusion
Currently, Andrejs Pildegovichs' political ambitions are unknown. At the same time, taking into account his special and unique personal abilities, it is possible to assert with confidence that a remarkable future in Latvian politics awaits this 36 year-old man.
Latvia issues:
Latvia Opens a NATO Gateway to Putin (27.03.06)
Documents of Soviet Intelligence: Abrene Region is Latvian Territory (05.11.05)
Boris Berezovsky Declared 'Unwanted Person' in Latvia (04.10.05)
Russia Threatens Latvia with Economic Sanctions (18.08.05)
From Communist Leader to Opponent of Moscow (08.08.05)
Regional issues:
Geopolitical Blindness of the Estonian Head of the Government (02.11.05)
Brussels Will Force Tallinn to Speak Russian (16.10.05)
Russian Air Force Threatens the Baltic Region (14.08.05)
Russian Espionage Activity Against Estonia Continues (08.08.05)
Russia Prepares for Economic Conquest of the Baltic Countries (07.08.05)
Baltic Countries - Monthly Review in eight parts (May 2005)
Estonian Leadership Searches for Allies in Conflict with Russia (27.05.05)
Intelligence Activity of the Russian Secret Services in Baltic Countries (23.04.05)
Chronicle of Russian Espionage in the Baltic Countries (20.04.05)
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