The Barricades - Responsibility

Responsibility

Major attacks were carried out by the OMON of Riga, however another combat unit was seen during the attack on the Ministry of Interior Affairs. It has been speculated that this unit was Alpha Group which had been seen in action during the attack on Vilnius. In an interview with film director Juris Podnieks, an OMON officer stated that originally it was planned to attack Riga, not Vilnius. At the last moment, a week before the attack on Vilnius, the plan was suddenly changed. He also claimed that the OMON of Rīga was so well prepared that there was no need for the Soviet military, which was present in Rīga at the time, to engage.

The OMON did not act on their own - after the Preses Nams was seized the OMON claimed that high officials of the Soviet government - Boris Karlovich Pugo and Mikhail Gorbachev knew about the attack, however both denied their involvement and the Supreme Council blamed the Communist Party of Latvia. In December before the events, the Popular Front, in its instructions for X hour, asserted that a coup was planned by the "Soyuz" group of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR MPs.

Dimitry Yuzhkov admitted that the Soviet military was responsible for the first bombings, however no one claimed responsibility for the rest of the bombings, which the communist press blamed on Latvian nationalists. On the basis of these and subsequent events, several OMON officers were tried, although many of them were not convicted, the Communist Party of Latvia, Interfront, the All-Latvian Public Rescue Committee and a few related organizations were banned by parliament for the attempted coup d'état, and two leaders of CPL and ALPRC were tried for treason.

Viktor Alksnis transplanted a large number of the Baltic OMON forces to the Transnistrian territory of Moldova in support of the separatist regime there, where Vladimir Antyufeyev, commander of the Riga OMON forces, took on the role of Minister of Security initially under an assumed name (Vladimir Shevstov), a post he still holds. It is unlikely at this point that the OMON will be brought to trial.