One of the first things Latvian Minister of Justice Inese Libina-Egnere will tell you is that she is a lawyer and not a diplomat. For a journalist interviewing her, that is a sigh of relief. Indeed, in an interview at Latvia’s mission to the United Nations on March 11, on the second beehive day of the Commission on the Status of Women’s annual gathering a few blocks away, Libina-Egnere, 47, was frank and eager to answer questions about why she is attending the CSW, as it’s known. She also discussed what Latvia — a Baltic state with Estonia and Lithuania — is doing with Russia’s main national asset in Riga, Latvia’s capital; and about forming a tribunal to prosecute the top Russian officials for their illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Libina-Egnere is a former Parliamentarian who has been a justice minister since 2022. She received her law degree from the University of Latvia and a master’s of law degree from the University of Freiburg, in Germany. Our conversation took place in a glass-walled room in the 31st floor in a building near the UN, offering sky-high views of Manhattan.
As negotiations creep along among Europeans about how to end the war in Ukraine while the United States is talking to Russia and Ukraine about the same thing, the topic is, of course, foremost on the mind of the Baltic countries, or the B3. “It is wartime,” Libina-Egnere said. “It is wartime on our borders; our neighbor, Russia, is for three years, every time, every day, attacking innocent people.”
PassBlue: Why are you here for the CSW?
Inese Libina-Egnere: It is one of the most notable high-level meetings in the UN, showing that gender equality in the whole world is a task that will help our economies, help our human resources. This will also help our demography in a way that women’s health is an issue and children’s education is an issue. Amid all the steps forward globally — gender equality in marriages, in education, looking for jobs — there are countries right now that are actually saying that this is something to abolish. Who else but the UN could, as an organization built for human rights, prevent this and secure that these pushbacks are not taking over all the progress we’ve had? The wording in the CSW political declaration gives important messages and messages against the pushback, which is good. Let’s see how the declaration works in the practical world, because it is not binding, but still the political will is there.
PB: Which countries are pushing back on progress for women?
L-B: There are countries, yeah, I won’t even refer to Russia.
PB: What is Latvia doing about using frozen assets of Russia, worth approximately $300 billion, to help rebuild Ukraine in a postwar era?
L-B: This debate in the European Union on how to use sanctions and frozen assets of Russia has been in a long legal battle because, of course, the sanctions as such are not meant to use the frozen assets but to freeze them to push the perpetrator to change his actions. So, we have several working groups in Latvia, also legal working group within the EU, which is still looking for solutions. One decision was taken to use the interest rates from the frozen assets; this is a huge step that we can already use this money. In Latvia, we do not have a lot of assets that directly belong to the Russian state but mostly to individuals. We seized, however, one of the properties belonging to the Kremlin, the so-called Moscow House in Riga, which was used for gatherings of pro-Kremlin people in Latvia. This house was taken by a special law made by the parliament, and there is an auction to sell the house and use the means to give directly to Ukraine to use for rebuilding.
PB: Tell us more about the Moscow House in Riga.
L-B: It was built in the 1990s as a symbolic house to show Russian culture, to give space for all kinds of dialogs. And, of course, when Russia was a democratic country, it was still good to have such a house and to rebuild connections. But nowadays, we can’t see that having such a symbolic house in the middle of the capital is a good purpose. It’s hard to say, of course, how much it is worth, but the property, the plot, is worth a lot because it’s directly in the center of Riga. It’s Soviet style, a whole corner building, massive, but it’s closed now because it was frozen as an asset, and all the Russians had to leave.
PB: What is Latvia doing about justice and accountability from Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine?
L-B: People can’t understand that in the 21st century, we don’t have the instruments to bring the Russian troika [President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov] to court, and therefore through all kinds of expert negotiations we plan to build a tribunal. There were thoughts it would be created under the auspices of the UN, but now the possible way will be to have this tribunal under the auspices of the Council of Europe. The Council of Europe working group is in the final phases to agree on legal solutions by March 23 or so, and then the political dialog will start. This solution should enjoy not only the Council of Europe’s support but also cross-regional support from a broad circle of countries, including the UK, which isn’t a member of the Council of Europe.Ukraine says that, yes, this tribunal is something that could work.
It would be in Ukraine. It will be hybrid so that applicable law will be the Ukrainian law, and we are not constructing new International Criminal Court conventions. The war and the victims are on Ukrainian territory, and you can use Ukrainian law to bring the perpetrators to justice, because the law is violated on the Ukrainian soil, and this is one of the legal principles and that will be done with the support of international society. [On March 17, the US announced it was withdrawing from International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine]
PB: How should Russia’s war in Ukraine end?
L-B: The war should end with a comprehensive, just and lasting peace, and peace is when both — not only Russia — are saying that there are circumstances they call peace; but also when Ukraine is saying that their country, their independence, their sovereignty, their people are not under Russia’n military attack. Only then we can say this is peace.
PB: Latvia is running for a UN Security Council seat, currently uncontested, for the 2026-2027 term. What does your country offer to the body?
L-B: I think everyone will see Latvia as an advantage because of our values, having a history of rebuilding our independence and rebuilding a country based on rule of law and democracy, showing that this is possible after World War II.
We welcome your comments on this article. What are your thoughts on Latvia's plan to auction Moscow House?
Dulcie Leimbach is a co-founder, with Barbara Crossette, of PassBlue. For PassBlue and other publications, Leimbach has reported from New York and overseas from West Africa (Burkina Faso and Mali) and from Europe (Scotland, Sicily, Vienna, Budapest, Kyiv, Armenia, Iceland, The Hague and Cyprus). She has provided commentary on the UN for BBC World Radio, ARD German TV and Radio, NHK’s English channel, Background Briefing with Ian Masters/KPFK Radio in Los Angeles and the Foreign Press Association.
Previously, she was an editor for the Coalition for the UN Convention Against Corruption; from 2008 to 2011, she was the publications director of the United Nations Association of the USA. Before UNA, Leimbach was an editor at The New York Times for more than 20 years. She began her reporting career in small-town papers in San Diego, Calif., and graduating to the Rocky Mountain News in Denver. Leimbach has been a fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center’s Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies as well as at Yaddo, the artists’ colony in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; taught news reporting at Hofstra University; and guest-lectured at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the CUNY Journalism School. She graduated from the University of Colorado and has an M.F.A. in writing from Warren Wilson College in North Carolina. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
