1998 Riga Bombing

1998 Riga Bombing

At 1:50am on April 2, 1998, a bomb exploded outside a 92-year old synagogue in Riga's historic Old Town, causing severe damage to the synagogue and surrounding buildings. The bomb which was supposedly planted by Fascist extremists was reportedly placed on the front steps of the synagogue building. The bomb caused extensive damage including tearing out the 200-lb oak door, destroying all the windows and casings of the basement and first and second floors, and leaving deep gouges in the wall. However there were no casualties.

Just 4 days after the April 2 bombing another bomb caused damage to the Russian Embassy building in Riga. As with the April 1 explosion no injuries were caused in the Embassy bombing. The cause of the blast was a set of plastic explosives detonated in a trash bin. The attack was linked with a rise in nationalist and extremist actions that seriously unsettled relations among Latvians, Jews and Russians. Alexander Udaltsev, Russia's ambassador to Latvia, joined republic leaders in blaming the incident on those trying to drive a wedge between Russians and Latvians. The Russian Foreign Ministry controversially blamed the bombing outside its Riga Embassy on "anti-Russian hysteria recently produced in Latvia and the encouragement of nationalism and extremism", and called for drastic measures to punish those who were guilty.

A few days after the Riga bombings, a monument to Latvian victims of the Holocaust was defaced in the port town of Liepāja. This was linked to the April 2 bombing and suggested more possible extreme Fascist activity.