The other day, the well-known Latvian social and political figure and journalist Vladimir Linderman found traces of unknown persons breaking into his apartment. Latvian intelligence officials, according to him, tried to plant something on the false ceiling. We called Linderman today and found out what he had suddenly found there.
“This is an oil painting. The light bulbs in the toilet were pulled out of their sockets in the false ceiling. I discovered this upon returning home after a 7-hour absence. I also went to the cinema to see Polansky‘s ‘An Officer and a Spy’, which is symbolic,” wrote Linderman on his Facebook page.
The photo shows two lamps hanging from the false ceiling, pulled out of their sockets. Obviously, they couldn’t have fallen out themselves.
“Who could’ve done this? I exclude Behemoth the Cat, with all its intellectual and athletic merits,” said Linderman, mentioning a pet named after the sparkling Bulgakov character. “This leaves ‘officers and spies’, i.e. employees of the SGB or other Latvian special services.”
It should be noted that Linderman has a long and difficult relationship with the Latvian special services, due to his active political and social activities and views, which are very different from those of the ruling parties. About 18 years ago, explosives were planted in his chair. So one shouldn’t be particularly surprised.
“Something was planted: ammunition, a bag of powder, a flash drive with child porn?” wondered Linderman, remembering the story of the journalist Yury Alekseyev, in whose apartment the Security Police found ammunition during a search. “But then they would have put the light bulbs back in place. More like a psychological attack. But the ceiling will still apparently have to be broken to check.”
They didn’t break the ceiling. However, a cursory inspection of the false ceiling was carried out, and it was immediately discovered why the light bulbs had not been returned to their place. We called Linderman today and he gave details.
“The only possible explanation is this: people went to plant something there. It’s the only room I have with a false ceiling. They removed the light bulbs from their sockets, and when they did this, they broke the fastening mechanism on one of them. The spring (or the bracket, I don’t know what to call it correctly) flew away and stayed there at the top. I only pulled her out,” said Linderman, “and since they broke the mechanism, they couldn’t put the light bulbs back. And this something – powder, ammunition, or whatever – has lost its meaning.”
Indeed, if a person comes home and sees that they have such a bad thing on their ceiling, they will take a look in order to see what happened, as Linderman did, cutting a piece from the ceiling, allowing him to examine the closed space using a flashlight. This means what would have been there would have been discovered before the search was carried out. He excludes criminality – neither possessions nor money are missing from the apartment.
“There is such a rather cunning old-fashioned Soviet-style still device, whose fastening mechanism they broke,” Linderman continued, “and the light bulbs were left hanging, and after that, it made no sense to plant something. You could say I was saved by the old Soviet system.”
Linderman now has two open criminal cases, but he said that the intelligence agencies will still have to close both soon for a lack of evidence. Therefore, he does not rule out that the planting was attempted in order to be able to initiate a new case.
For safety reasons and on the advice of his lawyer, Linderman wrote an affidavit to the Prosecutor General’s Office about his suspicion that illegal operational activities are carried out against him: “I recorded that it was not me who pulled out the light bulbs myself. I don’t believe there will be any proceedings, I’ve insured myself for an extreme case. Then they’ll find something later.”
But how did the staff of the special services enter the apartment?
“Making copies of the keys is in general the basics of operational work. At any interrogation they take the keys – they can do it at this moment,” said Linderman, sharing his observations. “But there are other ways. Entering an apartment is elementary for employees who have been trained to do so.”
rus.timeline.lv
Copyright © 2022. All Rights Reserved.