Nils Ušakovs

Background

Ušakovs was born in Riga into the family of an engineer and an amateur jazz musician Valērijs Ušakovs and literature and Russian language teacher Ludmila Ušakova. During his childhood, Ušakovs considered a military career, perhaps influenced by his family's history: both of his grandparents were army officers who fought in World War II, and many of his ancestors were involved in the Russian Civil War.

Ušakovs graduated from the University of Latvia in 1999 with a bachelor's degree in economics. He became a naturalized citizen of Latvia the same year. He then lived and studied in Denmark, where he received a candidatus oeconomices degree with specialization in European integration issues from the University of Southern Denmark in 2002. Aside from his native Russian, Ušakovs is fluent in English and Latvian, with basic knowledge of Swedish, Danish and German.

Journalist

From 1998 to 2005, Ušakovs had occupied various positions within Russian and Latvian-language media, including NTV (1998–1999), Latvijas Televīzija (1999–2000), TV5 (2001–2004) and the Channel One Baltic (2004–2005), where he worked as a news editor. In 2004, Ušakovs, for his contribution to journalism, was conferred the Cicero Award, established by the University of Latvia and the Latvian Association of Journalists.

Politician

Saeima member (2006–2009)

In 2005, Ušakovs' friend Jānis Urbanovičs made an invitation to join the National Harmony Party, which Ušakovs accepted. The party soon entered the Harmony Centre alliance, with Ušakovs elected its leader. He became a Saeima member after the 2006 Latvian parliamentary election, his alliance winning 17 seats (the third-best result). The alliance positioned itself as the only political force in the country promoting cooperation between the ethnic Latvians and Russians. Ušakovs has argued that this is the only way to achieve fuller integration of the Russian-speaking population, as opposed to political parties catering to the interests of only one ethnicity.

Mayor of Riga

Ušakovs has held the post of Riga Mayor continuously from 2009 till 2019 and his represented Harmony Centre has received the most votes in the past three municipal elections in Riga (2009, 2013 and 2017).

The Harmony Centre was the winner of the 6 June 2009, local election in Riga, securing 26 out of 60 seats. It entered a coalition with Ainārs Šlesers' LPP/LC party, which won 12 seats. Ušakovs and Šlesers were nominated for the posts of mayor and deputy mayor respectively, a move approved by the new city council on 1 July.

Ušakovs' inauguration was marred by a small controversy: the previous mayor, Jānis Birks of the right-wing, national conservative For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK party, which failed to win any seats, did not participate in the traditional ceremony of passing the chain of office to the new mayor. Birks' press secretary claimed that it was not due to an ideological conflict or a grudge, but because Birks was away from the city on that day.

Ušakovs saw strengthening of ties with Russia, particularly in the realms of freight transit through the Riga free port and tourism, as a solution to Riga's economic troubles, as Latvia was significantly affected by the 2008 financial crisis. During his campaign for the Riga's City Council, Ušakovs also argued for more emphasis on education of Latvia's population and protection of vital local industries. On 23 November 2010 Ušakovs was elected in the Freeport of Riga Board.

On 5 January 2010 members from the Riga City Council opposition initiated an unsuccessful vote of no confidence against Ušakovs, criticizing him of "undemocratic governance, work in the interest of private lobbies, poor management skills and squandering money".

According to data from research centre SKDS, Ušakovs' popularity among Rigans had grown steadily, from 53.1% of Rigans approving of Ušakovs' performance in August 2009 to 73% of the city's residents approving of him in December 2010, the highest recorded approval among Riga Mayors since March 1997, when the sociological studies were launched. In a 2010 survey by newspaper Neatkarīgā Ušakovs was voted the best Mayor of Riga by 43% respondents.

European Parliament (2019–present)

On 25 February Latvian Television reported of unofficial information that Ušakovs and Ameriks will run in the upcoming European Parliament elections for the first time ever, replacing the previously announced Harmony lead candidate Vjačeslavs Dombrovskis, despite Ušakovs previously stating he has no intention of running for the European Parliament. The next day Ušakovs and Ameriks confirmed their run for the European Parliament and Ušakovs denied speculation that the reason for changing his mind was the ongoing corruption investigation into Rīgas Satiksme. The campaign was successful and Ušakovs and Ameriks were both elected to the European Parliament. He has since been serving on the Committee on Budgets. In addition to his committee assignments, he is part of the Parliament's delegations for relations with the United States and to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly.

He is currently one of two Latvian MEPs who, along with Ivars Ijabs, are members of the European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights.

Collapse at the Riga Half Marathon

On Sunday 22 May 2011 Ušakovs collapsed after consuming an energy drink while taking part in the Riga Marathon half marathon event. He was immediately placed in intensive care at Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital with signs of severe hyperthermia. Ušakovs was placed in an induced coma state. On 24 May he was transported to Berlin for further treatment at the Charité Hospital. The Latvian medical authorities had previously declared his condition "serious but stable."

On 30 May doctors awoke him from an induced coma state. He fully recovered in the following weeks and resumed his duties on 12 July. More than 213 000 lats were donated for Ušakovs, of which 48 053 lats were used to cover the treatment expenses, while the rest was directed to charity for children treatment abroad.

Controversy

On 17 November 2011, founder and editor of the Russian-language news website Kompromat Leonīds Jākobsons began publishing e-mail correspondence from 2008 to 2009 between Ušakovs and advisor of the Russian embassy in Riga Alexander Hapilov, an alleged Russian intelligence agent, concerning funding of 2009 Latvian municipal elections.

Ušakovs filed a complaint against Jēkabsons and on 23 November 2011, a criminal process was launched against Jēkabsons for "violation of confidentiality of correspondence and information transmitted over telecommunications networks". In December 2011, the State Police arrested Jākobsons and searched his apartment, confiscating multiple data storage devices and two computers. The arrest was strongly condemned by Reporters Without Borders. On 29 May 2011 Jēkabsons was beaten, burned and slashed in the face with a sharp object by two unidentified attackers, who Jēkabsons believed were linked to his recent publications about Ušakovs. After the incident, Ušakovs voiced his support for Jākobsons on Twitter, ending with "I have an alibi :)". The phrase was publicly condemned as cynical. In 2016 Jākobsons was cleared of all charges, in regard to publication of Ušakovs' correspondence.

In September 2014 Ušakovs sparked controversy in an interview with the Russian television channel Dozhd, where he said, "For us at the moment, President Vladimir Putin is the best one we could have because, if he wasn't there, then power would not go to Navalny", adding that "The presidents that could be in his place would not bring stability to the neighborhood".

Two weeks before the 2017 Latvian municipal elections on 3 June a documentary titled Pārgājiens (Walkabout) on Ušakovs' road to becoming the Riga Mayor premiered at the Splendid Palace cinema. Producer and sports organizer Raimonds Elbakjans claimed the film was not a political advertisement but a genuine inspirational "documentary"; however, the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau later found that "Harmony" had partially financed it (i.e. the film making, broadcasting and pre-release) and classified it as a "pre-election campaigning", fining "Harmony" for 250 euros.

In March 2018 The Baltic Center for Investigative Journalism Re:Baltica published an investigation claiming that over a period of three years Ušakovs "has spent more than 8 million euros of taxpayer money on promoting himself" and the "money has been spent buying up airtime, employing people in youth organizations connected to the ruling party, and promoting mayor on social networks." The Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau concluded that there are no violations, pointing out that "the published articles didn’t indicate that Ušakovs was a candidate and there was no evidence that these posts had been paid for by the city". Ušakovs called the research biased and unsuccessfully filed a criminal suit for defamation against Re:Baltica. Ušakovs appealed the decision, but his appeal was also rejected.