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Nil Support Team

In the August 2013 issue of the magazine Ieva, a more in-depth article finally appeared about Nil Ušakovs's second wife - Jeļena Ušakova, who evidently, having finished her studies, has decided to make a public introduction of herself to society. It may equally turn out to be a PR move with some far-reaching purpose that cannot yet even be guessed at.

Jeļena Ušakova heads the youth organisation "Нам По Пути", which was founded in 2006, but at some point (in 2009?) this organisation became the "Nil support team". Perhaps out of love for her husband, perhaps out of respect for the sponsors who appeared along with it. This organisation publishes a newspaper in Russian, "При[ш]кольная", which is distributed in Russian schools in Riga, as well as Jewish ones, but not Ukrainian, Polish and, of course, not Latvian ones. To my surprise I discovered that there are quite a number of private schools in Riga with Russian as the language of instruction. For example, "Иннова", which was possibly entirely by coincidence also founded in 2006.

One of the organisation's stated aims is to organise discussions for school youth with "interesting" people. True, as Re:Baltica noted, the interesting people are mostly from the Russian-speaking environment. The most prominent and loudest project of the organisation is "9may.lv".

The newspaper has quite a wide editorial board, consisting mostly of young people from Riga's Russian schools. The newspaper is 32 pages thick and comes out once a month. Editor-in-chief - Jeļena Ušakova. Circulation - 5,200 copies, printed at the printing company Poligrāfijas grupa Fenster, which since 2 June 2012 changed its name to SIA Izdevniecība Logos, but in August 2013 insolvency proceedings were initiated against it.

Nothing is known in the public domain about the organisation's sources of funding, except that in 2011 the organisation requested funding from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while reporting to the Russian Embassy (as follows from email correspondence leaked in 2011). Among the newspaper's "friends" are LDz Cargo, the First Baltic Channel (PBK) and Baltic International Bank. One could of course rhetorically ask what reason LDz Cargo would have to sponsor such a publication? But no less interesting is the role of Baltic International Bank. The bank's founder is Valērijs Belokoņš. It remains only to note that in 2013 E. Repše engaged in active public activity as leader of the association "Latvijas attīstība" (Latvia's Development), which has presented itself as a defender of business interests (source: pietiek.com), while the association's founder and most generous donor is none other than V. Belokoņš's company - Baltic International Bank. Re:Baltica's research indicates that the newspaper's financier is also the "Russkiy Mir" foundation. Among the foundation's most prominent figures are T. Ždanoka, Metropolitan Alexander, A. Ļedjajevs, V. Kargins and of course - N. Ušakovs. In the not too distant past some of these foundation members with no less zeal were involved in the "pastors' party", or LPP/LC, with a quite noble aim - state development based on Christian values. With the global banking crisis, the development came to an end and the party along with it, but the most prominent figures remained - the penguin uncle - I. Godmanis, A. Ameriks and A. Šlesers, who, it is true, is no longer as frequently spotted in TV and newspaper spreads.

"При[ш]кольная" March 2013 issue