According to diplomats, Karins said earlier in an interview with Latvian television that Latvians “can perfectly understand the discontent of black Americans,” since they were also discriminated against during the “Soviet occupation”.

“Such fabrications are not supported by facts and can be considered exclusively in the context of propaganda tricks, and of poor quality,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

As noted, during the Soviet period, significant funds were allocated from the central budget for the development of the Latvian language and culture, "Latvians were widely represented in government and even were part of the country's top leadership."

“And the level of per capita income in the Latvian SSR was one of the highest in the Union,” the department added.

They also recalled that all residents of Latvia at that time had the status of full citizens of the USSR.

“Many of them could not even imagine that they would end up in a foreign country as“ non-citizens, ”the statement said.

At the end of 2019, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda declared that Russia was "trying to rewrite history."

In his opinion, the agreements between the USSR and Nazi Germany led "to the subsequent occupation of the Baltic countries."

As Russian ambassador Alexander Udaltsov noted, Nauseda’s accusations of Russia about “attempts to rewrite history” are unacceptable.