1998 Riga bombing
| Time | March–April 1998 |
|---|---|
| Location | Riga, Latvia |
| 0 | |
| Deaths | 0 |
| Suspect(s) | Unknown |
The 1998 Riga bombings were a series of bombings that took place in Riga, Latvia and which received considerable coverage at the time, most notably for their connection with fascist groups and the perception of an increase of fascism in Latvia. The United States government offered to help to locate the suspects, calling the acts "cowardly" and then-Latvian Prime Minister Guntars Krasts condemned the bombings, calling them an attempt to destabilize the country.
At 1:50am on April 2 a bomb exploded in Riga's old town outside the 92-year-old Peitav Synagogue, the only surviving working synagogue in the city, causing severe damage to the building and surrounding area. 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 90 kg oak door, destroying all the windows and casings of the basement and first and second floors, and leaving deep gouges in the wall. There were no casualties.
Four days after the April 2 bombing, another explosion caused damage to the Russian Embassy in Riga. As with the April 2 explosion there were no injuries. 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 Latvian 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.
The April 2, 1998, attack was the second bomb attack on the synagogue. The Synagogue was targeted on May 6, 1995, but far less damage was caused.
Similar explosions occurred on May 13, 1998, in Moscow, where a bomb ripped through the outer wall of the city's Maryina Roshcha synagogue, the center of Moscow's active Lubavitch community. The explosion caused significant damage to the ground floor sanctuary, destroyed cars parked nearby, and caused minor injuries to two people in an adjacent building. No one in the synagogue was hurt. The congregation's original wood synagogue was burned to the ground in 1993, in what was thought at the time to be an accidental fire. The new building, dedicated in 1996, suffered an earlier bomb attack a few months after reopening. The attack was linked with the synagogue attack in Riga less than a month earlier. However the attacks were carried out in a far more professional way.
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