Jānis Dombrava

Jānis Dombrava (born 1988 in Riga) is a Latvian politician, board Member of the National Alliance "All for Latvia – Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK" and vice-chairman of the party. Currently elected in the 14. Saeima, chairman of the National defence committee, has been a member of parliament since 2010.

Biography
J. Dombrava was born in Riga. Attended the Natalija Draudzina gymnasium. After acquiring secondary education at Riga Rainis 8th evening (shift) secondary School, he enrolled in the Faculty of History and Philosophy of the University of Latvia, which he graduated in 2010 with a Bachelor's degree.

J. Dombrava was married to Ieva Bērziņa, in 2011 family welcomed a daughter. Divorced in 2016. In 2021 he married Annija Asmine (in a relationship since 2017), he also has a daughter from this marriage.

Before J. Dombrava became a member of parliament, during free time he had been working since the age of 15 in different jobs, including construction and IT sphere.

Political activity
In 2005 he joined the organization "All for Latvia", which became a political party in the following year. J. Dombrava had also been the board member and leader of National alliance in Riga.

On 8 February 2007 J. Dombrava was one of the participants in a protest organised by "All for Latvia" against the recognition of territory of Abrene (formerly part of Latvia) as part of Russia, there was a cold of minus 18 degrees Celsius outside and they were all half-naked with Latvian cities written on them. On 10 March 2009 "All for Latvia" organized an act against the closure of rural schools. This act unified around 200 schools and 20 000 people around the territory of Latvia, all of them lighting fireplace at the same time. J. Dombrava also run for the Riga city elections in 2009, but the party "All for Latvia" did not get enough support to get over the threshold.

In 2010 he ran for the Saeima elections from the National Alliance and was elected to the Saeima from Vidzeme constituency. J. Dombrava is the youngest member of Saeima after the restoration of Latvia's statehood (elected at the age of 22, some members have also been elected at the same age, but were few months younger – Maris Vitols, Juris Sokolovskis and Janis Upenieks).

On autumn 2011, he ran for the Saeima snap elections as a member of National alliance and became a member of the 11th Saeima. He also received voter support in the 13th Saeima elections in 2018 and was elected a member of parliament – he became the first Saeima deputy to be elected 4 times at the age of 30. He ran in the 2019 European Parliament elections, but was not elected.

J. Dombrava has also been active in his efforts to restrict migration, standing against "refugee quotas", achieving that social benefits for refugees are restriced, and asking the Saeima to reject UN Global migration pact.

In June 2018 due to his political activity he was put in the "blacklist" of Russia.

In August 2021, in the context of the Belarus border crisis, J. Dombrava has repeatedly spoken about swift action to strengthen the Belarus-Latvia border, including supporting the idea of a mandate to use weapons. Later, when the large sums of money that these migrants pay to get over the border were revealed (around 10 000 EUR) he said that this crisis if part of a hybrid warfare and the border should be closed to illegal migration.

In September 2021, J. Dombrava opposed 40 million compensation for the Jewish Community, arguing that the true beneficiaries were not victims of the Holocaust but a separate society with links to money launderers and sanctions-listed Russian oligarchs.

J. Dombrava was elected a member of 14th Saeima on autumn 2022.

Immigration
J. Dombrava has regularly voiced sharp criticism against immigration from third-world countries, especially during the 2015 migrant crisis, when he opposed "refugee quotas," arguing that immigrants come from high-risk countries of terrorism, refugee benefits put pressure on national budgets and immigrants come from fundamentally different cultural background and create social tensions. J. Dombrava was also one of those who achieved a reduction in the social benefits of refugees, on the grounds that: “We need to think primarily of our residents, not arrivals from other countries,” saying the benefit is high compared to the social benefits available to locals.

in 2018, he was also one of the MPs with whose voice a resolution was passed calling on the government not to adopt the UN global Migration Pact.

J. Dombrava has regularly voiced sharp criticism not only against refugees but also against third-country students. in 2018, a lot of media attention was drawn by an article in which J. Dombrava claims that third-country students use studies in Latvia as an opportunity to obtain a residence permit to actually work low-skilled full-time jobs, and only use studies as cover. Before and after that J. Dombrava has actively stood for the reformation of these residence permits.

Views on politics of Russia and USSR
J. Dombrava has regularly expressed the need to reduce the influence of Russia in Latvia, by trying to reduce the ability of local municipalities to cooperate with Russia, asking to abolish the sales of residence permits, submitting bills that restrict the use of USSR symbolics in public spaces, and has called to strengthen the defence of Latvia against potential military threats created by Russia.

In 2014, even before the annexation of Crimea has denounced the inability of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia Edgars Rinkevics to react and acknowledge the threats of Russia.

As a deputy, J. Dombrava has repeatedly supported the dismantling of the controversial so-called "monument to the liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from German fascist invaders", and in 2019, when the necessary 10,000 signatures on the proposal to dismantle it were collected he was a member of a respective work group in the parliament. In the context of a monument of similar nature in Limbazi, he supported the initiative to achieve the dismantling of the USSR monument. When a note of protest was submitted by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in connection with the event, J. Dombrava stated that "by advocating for the dismantled commemorative stone, Russia is humiliating itself as it seeks to simultaneously justify the killers and advocates legitimising the occupation regime of the USSR."

According to J. Dombrava, 9 May in Latvia is the way Russia maintains the identity of USSR to Russians living in Latvia, which he calls the "cult of 9th of May". He also denies any connection between the monument and the liberation from Germans, which is justified by the fact that in 1944, in Estonia, where German troops had already retreated and an independent state was declared, the USSR occupied it regardless.

Since 2017, J. Dombrava has repeatedly initiated initiatives to remove the USSR symbols from the railings at the Stone bridge.

In June 2018 due to his political activity he was put in the "blacklist" of Russia.

Similarly, on 9 May 2020, at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, when there were strict restrictions on gatherings, he tweeted that responsible officials should take responsibility for the failure to limit the flow of people to the "Victory Monument."

International activities
In 2011, after the Belarusian presidential elections, when there was a suppression of opposition protests, along with members of the faction of the National Alliance, he urged the Saeima to adopt a statement condemning violent repression of protesters in Belarus. Also in 2020, following the results of the Belarusian presidential elections, there was one of those calling for a new legitimate Belarusian presidential election.

In 2013, he asked the Estonian Parliament not to make "mistakes of Latvia" in relation to the ratification of the Estonia-Russia border agreement, which included the abandonment of the claims on Petseri region, just as Latvia waived the rights to Abrene.

J. Dombrava has condemned Russia's occupation of Georgian and Ukrainian territories in debates of Saeima, in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and publications. In late 2013, he participated in Ukraine's Maidan, where he pointed out that it was not the east or the west who had the right to decide on the future of the Ukrainian people, but the Ukrainian people themselves.

He has supported Saeima statements supporting Ukrainian sovereignty and Ukrainian armed forces, and has participated in related fundraising campaigns.

State language and symbolics
In 2011, J. Dombrava actively participated in the signature collection campaign initiated by the National alliance on unified education in the state (Latvian) language exclusively. He supported the corresponding amendments once they were reviewed by the Saeima. He has also been one of those MPs who in 2018 only supported education in the national language at the level of primary education. In 2020, he was one of the supporters of the draft law on ensuring the use of Latvian language in kindergartens.

In 2012, when there was a referendum on Russian as the second language of the country, he voiced sharp criticism against the supporters of this idea, and called to vote against, he also highlighted the high proportion of supporters of the idea in prison, saying that "we can only judge that N. Usakovs and J Urbanovics, with the announcement that they will vote for Russian in the referendum, want to win favor from most dedicated supporters of Russian language – criminals." In the context of this referendum, J. Dombrava mentioned the example of Belarus, saying that a similar introduction of bilingualism in Belarus has actually led to the almost complete elimination of Belarusian from the public space.

As early as 2012, he expressed the need to introduce tougher penalties for desecrating the Freedom Monument. In 2020, he submitted and secured the adoption of a draft law in Saeima on the Freedom Monument and the Brothers' Cemetery, which establishes a special protection zone for these objects.

COVID-19 pandemic
On 24 February 2020, even before the state of emergency was declared, J. Dombrava and other members of the National Alliance called for traffic to be suspended with the countries affected by the COVID-19 virus, so that the virus is not brought into Latvia and there are no national restrictions. There were similar calls to halt migration from abroad followed on summer and autumn 2020, when the spread of the virus in Latvia was halted.

In December 2020, J. Dombrava published an article where he expressed an opinion that people who speak out negatively against vaccination or the pandemic should not be condemned, which he bases on the fact that 'they are all our fellow human beings. It's our society. It has different views and needs to be tried to understand before being condemned. Honest, open and respectful communication must happen to all people, not just some."

Unlike other coalition members, J. Dombrava has also opposed mandatory vaccination of certain professions, offering to care primarily for vaccinations of all persons in risk groups.