On March 1, the Chapter of the Order decided to deprive the Order of the Three Stars of Peter Aven (Pjotrs Avens, Petr Aven). The billionaire was awarded the highest state award of Latvia in 2012.
“In the interests of Latvia – peace and security in Europe. Russia’s war against Ukraine is a violation of international law, a crime against the Ukrainian people. Pyotr Aven did not dissociate himself from the war started by the Putin regime. This means support for Russian aggression and is incompatible with the highest award of Latvia and the status of a decorated person, this cannot outweigh previous personal merits,” said Chancellor of the Order Chapter Sarmite Elerte.
The law on state awards (clause 2 of the first part of article 48) states that a person may be deprived of an award if he has committed a shameful act that was not known to the Chapter of the Order at the time the award was awarded to him and which is incompatible with the status of the awarded person.
It is symbolic that on the same day, March 1, the Chapter decided to award the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky with the Order of Viestura of the first degree.
“For personal courage in the struggle for common European values and leadership in the battle of the entire Ukrainian people against Russian aggression,” Sarmite Elerte said.
It should be noted that Petr Aven, a person on the EU sanctions list, still remains a citizen of Latvia, which he received under scandalous circumstances.
In 2020, the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (Korupcijas novēršanas un apkarošanas birojs, KNAB) interrogated a banker in the context of giving a bribe to a former representative of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (Pilsonības un migrācijas lietu pārvalde, PMLP).
According to Nekā personīga (TV3), KNAB recorded conversations between politician Edgars Jaunups and businessman Guntis Ravis that “before Christmas give a ten” to the former head of PMLP.
In 2019, the Anti-Corruption Agency initiated a criminal trial in connection with suspicions that the former head of the OCMA, Vilnis Jekabsons, could have received a bribe of 10,000 euros for a condescending attitude in granting Latvian citizenship to Petr Aven.
Aven could apply for citizenship, since his ancestors lived in Latvia until 1941, however, as part of the procedure, it was also required to pass an exam in knowledge of the Latvian language.
According to the decision of the KNAB to terminate the criminal process due to insufficient evidence, in November 2015, Aven took an exam for knowledge of the Latvian language, but failed it. However, the second attempt was successful.
Recordings of conversations between Jaunups and Ravis about the transfer of a bribe to the head of the OCMA were made after Petr Aven’s first attempt to pass the exam. However both the politician, and the businessman and Ekabsons denied the fact of a bribe. This assumption was not confirmed by the Russian banker himself, who was summoned for interrogation in 2020. Aven noted that he met with Jaunups only to discuss attracting Russian capital to local basketball. KNAB did not find any other evidence, so the criminal process had to be closed.
At the same time, during the investigation, KNAB employees established that Petr Aven received a passport and an ID card of a Latvian citizen unusually quickly: just 1 hour and 18 minutes after the decision to grant him citizenship
