Latvia blacklists Russian mafioso Osipyan

• Published date: 02 August 2022
• Publication title: LETA

RIGA, Aug 2 (LETA) - Interior Minister Kristaps Eklons in July included in Latvia's so-called blacklist Roman Osipyan, a Russian citizen known in criminal circles as a "contact" of the Constitution Protection Bureau's (SAB) former operative Aigars Sparans in communication with the criminal world, Delfi news portal reports.

ccording to Delfi sources, Osipyan has a long history of links with Latvia's organized crime groups. He is reportedly seen as a confidant of Russian criminal kingpin, or thief-in-law, Vyacheslav Shestakov, a.k.a Sliva. Osipyan, for instance, was entrusted with arranging the sale of Shestakov's properties.

Shestakov himself features in the blacklist of people undesirable in Latvia since 2012.

Delfi also reports that Osipyan had been closely connected with Sparans who is being probed for espionage and graft. In 2020 Sparans was detained after a meeting with Osipyan at the Erebuni restaurant in Riga.

The Forbidden Method, an analytical program of Latvian Television, established in 2020 that the contraband cigarettes sold by illegal dealers at the Riga Central Market were delivered to the market from this same restaurant. Erebuni was also a meeting place of former Saeima member Janis Adamsons...