When Janis Adamsons, the former minister of the interior and a leading figure in Latvian politics, arrived at the modest courthouse of Riga in early May, he hardly looked like a high-flying spy working for Russia. A 66-year-old man with a massive build and a balding head, he exhibited a kind of bonhomie, even though he was inclined to keep a low profile. Yet here he was in the courtroom, a large plastic bag in his hand. Inside was his indictment file: The elements that made him, according to his detractors, the country's most notorious traitor.

Latvian justice does not like to make a spectacle of itself, no doubt a unique feature of this "country of jurists," as some foreign diplomats posted in Riga call it, where Protestant restraint and a taste for debate are fostered. Yet this Baltic state of 1.9 million inhabitants, 35% of whom are Russian-speaking, bordering Russia and Belarus, is well aware of what the Kremlin's threat represents. After throwing off the Soviet yoke in 1990 and joining the European Union and NATO in 2004, it is doing all it can to protect itself from its former occupier. Its allies are helping it in this ambition: Western troops are stationed there, while Moscow's troops are waging war on Ukraine.

On this spring day, Adamsons regained at least temporary freedom after posting €30,000 bail and postponing the trial, scheduled for 2022. He felt better after undergoing surgery and insisted that he would prove the "emptiness" of the charges levied against him. As for the Latvian counter-espionage (VDD), it was at least hoping to bring down a controversial figure who had always managed to elude it. It took the President of the Parliament, Inara Murniece, a vote in 2021 to lift his immunity for Adamsons to be prosecuted. According to the latter, "the suspicions are very serious."

Former KGB officer

According to Latvia's Prosecutor General Juris Stukans, everything began in 2021. "We were able to document meetings with a Russian FSB officer in public places in Riga, notably in a café," he told Le Monde. Shortly afterward, the officer, named Gennady Silonov, was arrested at Riga airport. He was tried at the same trial but by videoconference from his cell. "In one case, we were able to establish that Adamsons gave him a USB key," continued the magistrate. Of the hundred or so meetings recorded between the two men (between 2015 and 2021, some in Latvia, others in Moscow), around 40 are included in the file. "You have to remember that Adamsons is a former KGB officer," said the prosecutor. "He has kept ties with his former home while claiming to be a great patriot."

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