THERE are two ways of thinking about cavalry. One is of the dashing dragoon, all polished brass, breastplates and crested helmets performing ceremonial duties outside Buckingham Palace or the Elysée Palace while Japanese tourists get themselves into frame for a quick photo, then dash off to Harrod’s or Galleries Lafayette.

The other way of thinking about cavalry is The Charge Of The Light Brigade and Little Big Horn – spectacular, shocking and complete disasters.

Latvian defence minister Vinets Veldre thinks he is planning the former. In fact it’s as plain as a great big four-legged equine animal that he’s the master of the latter.

Veldre is in the news for a couple of reasons at the moment. First is his absurd plan to spend hundreds of thousands of lats of taxpayers’ money on a mounted honour guard. Quite what purpose this would serve is open to question, but Veldre is in no doubt that it’s essential to get some soldiers on horses in Riga some time soon. He’s even listed it in his top 15 priorities as defence minster.

Of course it is purely coincidental that Veldre happens to be a well-known equestrian himself. A cynic might suggest that maybe he knows a few people in the bloodstock trade who could provide the necessary horseflesh at 50,000 lats a shot (plus oats and stabling) and that – who knows? - he might even be able to broker a deal himself. But as I’m not cynical I won’t suggest he’s on the fiddle.

However, I will suggest that pushing for a mounted honour guard with pomp and ceremony while the country is in the middle of a serious economic pinch shows he must be a couple of rosettes short of a gymkhana.

But being on the fiddle brings us to the other reason Veldre is in the news. Two members of staff appear to have been on the fiddle at KNAB, the state anti-corruption body. That the anti-corruption police have corrupt officers in their midst is embarrassing and serious, but hardly without precedent – just remember the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad in the UK. It became a running joke that no-one had explained that they were supposed to stop serious crime in the West Midlands, not perpetrate it.

But while the Coventry coppers were institutionally corrupt, KNAB is not. I’ve met KNAB boss Aleksejs Loskutovs and if he’s a bent copper I will eat one of Veldre’s cavalry helmets. His deputy Juta Strike is, if anything, even more impressive.

But two KNAB officers have been charged with trousering large sums of cash from raids carried out over a period of years. The exact sum is disputed, but it’s clearly a serious affair and highlights problems with KNAB’s structure (regulated by parliament) and oversight procedures. Though Loskutovs had absolutely no involvement in the corruption, as the KNAB head he does bear ultimate responsibility.

Much as I like Loskutovs, I was thinking that he would have to resign as a result, even though it would mean the government who so disgracefully tried to hound him out of office last year finally gained his scalp. Where they failed, his own officers would have succeeded.

Some people have been talking about a conspiracy to set him up, but I doubt this is the case if only because it would have required much more coordination and forward thinking than the current government is capable of.

Then who should come riding to Loskutovs’ rescue but the unlikely figure of Vinets Veldre, a man with a history of making crude comments at Loskutovs’ expense.

Veldre is part of a four man commission summoned into being by the government in order to deliver the coup de grace to Loskutovs next week. They were supposed to meet in a smoky room, mutter about how serious Loskutovs’ lapses had been and force him to resign.

Only Veldre didn’t realise that the first rule of a foregone conclusion is that you never admit that it is a foregone conclusion. There has to be the appearance of due process, just as you can’t just jump on a horse without a saddle, point it at the nearest fence and expect it to jump.

Clearly, such was the glee with which Veldre viewed the prospect of finally sticking it to Loskutovs that he couldn’t rein in his emotions. He told the press that establishment of the commission was basically the beginning of Loskutovs’ dismissal procedure. “The procedure has to be followed formally, Loskutovs’ opinion should be heard,” said the minister, adding that he would like to hear how Loskutovs explains his “irresponsibility”.

Asked whether it is clear that Loskutovs has to be dismissed and all that’s needed is a formal reason, Veldre said “of course, legal grounding is significant”. So, guilty until proven very guilty.

This finally seems to have roused Loskutovs, who in truth has been too mild-mannered for his own good. He has asked PM Godmanis to remove Veldre from the four-man panel, seeing as he seems to regard it as little more than a procedural firing squad [my words, not his].

The other three members of the panel are prosecutor general Janis Maizitis, Constitution Protection Bureau (SAB) head Janis Kazocins, Security Police head Janis Reiniks, and parliament national security committee chairman Dzintars Jaundzeikars, the former Interior Minister who famously claimed that he was being set up when his son was arrested driving a 4×4 under the influence of ecstasy.

So well done Vinets Veldre. You may have just managed to snatch a spectacular defeat from the jaws of apparently inevitable victory, and in doing so you have rendered your country a great service. Cardigan and Custer would be proud.

Tally ho!

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 10:42 pm and is filed under Latvia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.