How a battle over the management of a cultural centre in Latvia became a geopolitical issue

The GORS cultural centre is one of the main gathering spaces for the residents of Rēzekne. It has held a diverse array of concerts by artists from all over the world. Photo by Gabriel Matias Castilho.

Rēzekne, a Latvian town near the Russian border, struggles to decide who should take over the management of its main cultural centre. This building is commonly known as the “Embassy of Latgale”, the Latvian region with the highest share of Russian speakers.

Worries about Russian influence on films, concerts and plays at the GORS Cultural Centre in Rēzekne have elevated a local dispute to a question of national security for the small NATO nation.

Since it opened in 2013, the GORS cultural centre has showcased Latvian and Russian music, dance and theatre. But since Russia launched its 2022 war in Ukraine, performers from the country have been banned. Since then, the conflict over the centre’s direction has revealed deep divisions in Rēzekne and the country.

“Right now, if you want to influence the people, you can organize these events in Russian,” said the Rēzekne city council member Inara Groče. “I think some politicians want to use this culture for political influence, and it is not so good.”

Approximately half of Rēzekne’s population identify as Latvian, while slightly less, 41 per cent, as Russian. This second group can be defined as people who define their ethnicity as Russian and/or speak the Russian language. Many Russians and Belarusians moved to the city after the Soviet occupation of Latvia at the end of the Second World War.

A pro-Russian politician, Aleksandrs Bartaševičs, has been Rēzekne’s mayor throughout the construction and most of the operations of GORS. He is considered a right-wing populist politician and advocates for closer economic ties with Russia. He promised investments from Russia for many of his projects in the city, including the cultural centre.

GORS used to boast performances from both Latvian and Russian artists, reporting a total audience of more than 150,000 people throughout 2015.

The name GORS came as a play on the Latvian word “gars”, which means “spirit”. The logo of the cultural centre reflects this, as it shows the letter O moving to give space to an A.

“It has always been important for GORS to address everybody,” said Ilona Rupaine, the head of the artistic department at GORS. “The symphony music, or the ballet, or other concerts, which doesn’t involve any language, you know?”

She said it was “ideally placed” for concert goers from countries like Russia and Belarus. “It was quite okay and common that many audiences were addressed,” she said. Latvia no longer welcomes most Russian and Belarusian citizens.

When the Russia-Ukraine war started, celebrities and investors from Russia were no longer invited. Rupaine said fans drawn to Russian performers stopped attending. The investment promises made by Bartaševičs also never came to fruition.

On December 30th, the Rēzekne city council suddenly announced the dismissal of Diāna Zirniņa, who had been the head of GORS since its opening.

“Unfortunately, we have encountered resistance from the head of GORS herself in our search for a more effective management model,” Bartaševičs told the state broadcaster LSM. “Without trying and daring to look for new solutions, the municipality will never be able to find the most effective working model.”

Leila Rasima, a member of the Saeima, Latvia’s parliament, and former Rēzekne council member, suggested that Bartaševičs fired Zirniņa because he wanted more influence over what artists GORS invited. He especially wanted to bring back Russian performers. “He wanted to shift that to his electorate … because he’s heavily depending on Russian voters.”

In January, Latvia’s president, Edgars Rinkēvičs, said the country should take over GORS and stressed its importance for the whole nation. “It needs to be looked at in the context of both national identity and national security and the country’s cultural policy in the long term,” he said.

On March 19th, a bill backed by the government made its way to the education, culture and science committee of the Saeima. If passed, the law would establish a foundation with five members — with the Rēzekne municipal government being one of them, along with two government departments — for the concert hall’s management.

But the Russian-speaking population of the city disapproves of the national government interfering with the management of the cultural centre.

For example, Elīna Pastare, a tourism consultant at the Rezekne Tourism Development Centre and resident of the city, said her Russian-speaking husband called the changes to GORS “absurd” and “insanity”.

“It’s this anger,” she said. “You have these things that are not rational … and you don’t know to whom to address this anger.”

Māris Andžāns, director of the Centre for Geopolitical Studies in Riga, called the dismissal of the centre’s director unfortunate.

He pushed back on suggestions that restricting Russian performances sacrifices his country’s democratic principles, given the real fears in Latvia that Russia could attack.

“It’s a very tricky balancing act to be a liberal democracy in the shadow of an aggressive neighbour,” Andžāns said.

His research reveals how the Latgale region complicates efforts to build a cohesive Latvian state. Russia stokes this discord with media reports accusing Latvians of leaving Latgale behind and urging the region’s residents to take care of themselves.

“What the data show is, obviously, that Latgale is the most problematic region in every single aspect. You have the lowest willingness to fight for Latvia, you have the lowest support for Ukraine.”

The history, demographics and proximity to Russia of Latgale all contribute to the local mindset.

“People who were born during the Soviet Union — who migrated here, who have friends in Russia — they lived and they still try to live in Russia’s information space,” Andžāns said.

“These people are simply trying to watch Russian TV or listen to Russian radio, Russian shows.”

A controversial mayor

 Bartaševičs routinely posts content on TikTok and Facebook in Russian. A council member from the opposition, Ināra Groče, says his social media activity acts as a barrier for Latvian speakers who do not speak Russian. She also said people in the city are scared of confronting the mayor. “They don’t like to get into politics,” she said. “They have competence, they have experience, but don’t like it because it would be a confrontation with the chairman … Because he has the power, he has the money.”

Bartaševičs was the mayor of the city from 2009 to 2024.

The city has been in trouble financially. In November 2023, Rēzekne was 8.5 million euros in debt and was heading for bankruptcy. Then, the federal government dismissed Bartaševičs from his job as mayor, citing that he failed to provide complete information about the financial situation of the city.

However, Bartaševičs was re-elected as mayor one year after his dismissal.

But his troubles with the national government continued. Early last month, he was denied clearance from the government to access state secrets and was asked to step down from his position once again. At a city council meeting on 5th February, Groče asked him, “Since you’re the chairperson of the meeting and given that you have no access to state secrets, I have a question: Why haven’t you stepped down from your position?”

Bartaševičs did not answer her but was suspended as mayor by Raimonds Čudars, Latvia’s Minister of Smart Administration and Regional Development, five days later.

Bartaševičs and his city council vice-chairman did not respond to emails or calls to city hall requesting interviews.

A city once again divided

The GORS head of the artistic department Ilona Rupaine said the municipality was not expecting the former head of GORS Diāna Zirniņa’s dismissal. “All of Latvia became involved,” Rupaine said. Photo by Gabriel Matias Castilho.

Ilona Rupaine said the concerns over the management of GORS have divided Latvian society.

“The city council, they make this an issue so that the state or the government wants to take GORS over,” she said. “But it’s not true, and it’s politicized and again, dividing people. So everybody suffers from it.”

But she says her immediate challenge is to recoup the centre’s audience. The venue reported a total attendance of 130,000 people for 2025, one of its highest performance indicators in the last five years. But Rupaine worried the political tug of war will keep people away.

The challenge for the new management will be to find a way to restore the spirit or “gars” of what GORS was set up to be.

“Still, we live in Latvia, we are in the Republic of Latvia, and GORS is one of the resources that shows that this is Latvia,” Rupaine said.

Gabriel Matias Castilho is a Brazilian political journalist that specializes in politics, international affairs and climate policy coverage.

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Baltics, Culture, Latvia, Russian speaking minority