Man who illegally crossed into Russia on SUP board is Stanislavs Bukains, one of suspects in criminal case on Baltic Anti-Fascists organization

RIGA - A man who illegally entered Russia from Latvia last weekend by crossing a river on a SUP board is pro-Kremlin activist Stanislavs Bukains, one of the persons accused in a criminal case on the "Baltic Anti-Fascists" organization, LETA determined.

As reported, this past weekend a man with a child illegally crossed the River Zilupe from Latvia into Russia on a SUP board. They were detained in Russia, while the State Border Guard has requested official information from the Russian side on the status of the detained persons.

At the same time, the Border Guard also initiated criminal proceedings on illegal border crossing.

LETA has now found out that the two are Bukains and his daughter. The State Police's Public Relations Department confirmed to LETA that the police had started a criminal case on abduction of a minor.

"We know that the child's father and the child illegally crossed the Latvian-Russian border. The incident was detected by the State Border Guard, which has also started criminal proceedings. Both persons have been detained in Russia," said the police.

Law enforcement authorities promptly took all the necessary actions: the girl was put on the list of international wanted persons, a report on the child was included in the Interpol database, and a request was sent to the Russian authorities through Interpol to inform them about the child's whereabouts, the police said.

The Justice Ministry and the Foreign Affairs Ministry are also involved in these efforts.

According to missing persons search organization Bezvests.lv, the girl, Monika Bukaine born in 2019, was not brought back to her residence by her father on July 21.

Prosecution has not yet started in the criminal case against Bukains as pretrial investigation is still ongoing.

The Prosecutor's Office last October brought charges against six persons in the criminal case on the Baltic Anti-Fascists organization, which is believed to be a criminal organization. Three of them were already wanted at the time.

The six are pro-Kremlin activist Tatjana Andrijeca, Aleksanders Zguns, Bukains, Sergejs Vasiljevs, Viktorija Matule and Romans Samuls.

According to the media, Samuls has moved to Belarus where he has made critical statements about Latvia in interviews with local propaganda media. Vasiljevs is described as the head of the organization, who has also appeared in the Kremlin-controlled propaganda media reports and apparently also does not reside in Latvia.