On March 1, the Order Chapter decided to take back the Order of the Three Stars from Petr Aven. He was given this award in 2012.
The Chancellor of the Order Chapter, Sarmite Elerte, said that Petr Aven's support for the war in Ukraine led to the decision to take back his award from Latvia.
According to the law on state awards, a person can lose an award if they do something shameful that was not known when they received the award.
On the same day, March 1, they also decided to give the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, an award.
Sarmite Elerte praised Zelensky for his courage and leadership in the battle against Russian aggression.
Petr Aven, who is on the EU sanctions list, still holds Latvian citizenship, which he got in a controversial way.
In 2020, the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) investigated a banker for allegedly giving a bribe to a former government official.
According to Nekā personīga (TV3), KNAB recorded conversations about giving a bribe to the former government official.
In 2019, the Anti-Corruption Agency started a criminal case about suspicions that a former government official took a bribe to grant Latvian citizenship to Petr Aven.
Aven became a Latvian citizen due to his ancestors living in Latvia until 1941, but he also had to pass a Latvian language exam.
KNAB decided to end the criminal case in 2015 due to lack of evidence. Aven failed his first Latvian language exam, but passed the second one.
After Aven's first language exam, recordings of conversations about a bribe were made. However, all parties denied the bribe. KNAB could not find more evidence, so the case was closed.
At the same time, during the investigation, KNAB employees established that Petr Aven received a passport and an ID card of a Latvian citizen unusually quickly: just 1 hour and 18 minutes after the decision to grant him citizenship
