People say a lot of bad things about Šlesers, and even more good ones. What is true and what is fiction? We gathered everything from open sources and checked every point. Each one links to its source. Know something we don't have, or spotted a mistake? Write to our chatbot in Telegram and attach proof.
Data as of 03.11.2026
≈ €3 bn already received: residence permits, tourism, EU money, wages, taxes. Another €3 bn, Riga Waterfront, is under construction.
≈ €10.3 bn including the effect after he left (estimate)
Confirmed: the unpaid debt of his former party. Including the unproven €3 m in the digital TV case, up to €3.75 m.
The good Šlesers has done outweighs the harm 7 900 times
About €597 m a year, €19 a second. Annual rates added up: residence permits €113 m on average, growth in tourist spending by 2008 €397 m, growth in LDz wages by 2007 €63 m, Rimi social tax €22 m, port taxes €2.4 m.
In 2014 the residence permit programme brought in €447.5 m, in 2024 just €18.4 m. That is a gap of about €429 m a year. Šlesers opposed tightening the programme. COVID and the 2022 ban on permits for Russian and Belarusian citizens also played a part.
Dossier · Case No. 1970-01-22 · Sources: open
Achievements backed by documents
He started out in Norway. Together with Norwegian investors Varner and Hagen he brought Rimi, Narvesen, Cubus and Dressmann to Latvia, along with the Galerija Centrs, Mols, Origo and Olimpija shopping centres and Radisson Blu hotels.
By his own account, he became a millionaire back in the 90s, before politics, on projects with Frank Varner.
He negotiated Ryanair's arrival. Passengers: 0.71 m in 2003, before Ryanair arrived, 3.16 m in 2007 and 4.07 m in 2009. airBaltic became the largest airline in the Baltics.
Double-check: you often read "a tenfold increase". Official statistics confirm a 5.7-fold increase from 2003 to 2009. That is impressive enough without exaggeration.
In 2008 Latvia's GDP fell by 4.6%, and in the first quarter of 2009 by 18%. Unemployment rose from 4.9% to 11%. Meanwhile:
He was minister until March 2009. The sectors he ran fell less than the economy as a whole during the crisis, or even grew.
The programme has run since 1 July 2010, at the height of the crisis. Over 2010–2024 it attracted about €1.64 bn, with about 19,900 permits issued. In the first three years alone, 419.2 m lats came in. Šlesers calls it his initiative and, citing a Deloitte study, puts its total effect at 1.5 bn lats.
Official documents do not name the author of the law. Šlesers himself has said that, as a developer, he had a personal interest in the programme.
The Ministry for Children and Family Affairs was run by his party, LPP, with Ainārs Baštiks as minister. They introduced "mothers' salaries", a maintenance guarantee fund and about 300 playgrounds. The number of foster families grew from 15 to over 400.
The 24% rise in the birth rate is Baštiks' own figure. We found no independent calculation. Šlesers' personal role is described in his party's brochure.
He could live anywhere, but he lives in Riga. No other citizenship. In his candidate declaration all property is Latvian: Riga, Jūrmala, Dobele, Preiļi. The family business is here too: a port group in Riga and the Riga Waterfront development.
His children stayed in Latvia and work for it: Edvards on Riga City Council, Ričards was a member of the Saeima, Dana works at the Latvia First society. His party's motto: the interests of Latvia and its people always come first.
Married to Inese Šlesere since 1992, they have five children. His sons Edvards and Ričards have also gone into politics.
Minister of Economics (1998–1999), Deputy Prime Minister (2002–2004), Minister of Transport (2004–2009), Deputy Mayor of Riga (2009–2010). Member of the 7th–10th Saeima.
A project by Eagle Hills, the Abu Dhabi developer whose founder created Emaar. The Šlesers family holds a small stake; the investor puts up the money. The former port land of Andrejsala is set to get 8,000 apartments, shops, hotels, schools, a cruise terminal and a waterfront promenade.
The construction is already providing jobs for builders, and once complete the district will bring taxes, housing and service jobs.
Sources have not yet given a number of jobs. The towers in the promotional images are not yet approved: they need a new development plan.
2022: Latvia First entered the Saeima with 9 seats; he himself was among the leaders in voters' "pluses". 2025: first place in Riga, 18.17%. 2026: 13.08% and 17 seats, the second-largest force in the Saeima.
Every accusation and how it ended
KNAB spent years investigating conversations recorded at the Ridzene hotel. No charges were ever brought. Prosecutors found no evidence that he sought illegal influence or that he was offered anything; one of his remarks on the recording was taken as a refusal of such a deal. Hidden ownership of companies was not proven. The case was closed, and in 2018 a higher prosecutor spent nine months reviewing that decision and upheld it.
Šlesers' position: in 2011 KNAB staged a political show and never showed the public any evidence.
The Saeima refused to allow a search of MP Šlesers, and the search never took place. President Zatlers initiated a referendum, and 94.5% of those voting backed dissolution. The event did happen. The case for which the search was requested never reached court and was closed.
Prosecutors claim the project was artificially inflated through the company Hannu Digital (about €3 m). For Šlesers they sought a €65,000 fine, not prison.
Šlesers' position: the case is fabricated, the contracts were signed under the Dombrovskis government and approved by the ministries, and the state gained hundreds of millions from digital TV. Status: not convicted; the case has dragged on for about 20 years.
This was said by Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of Russia's Novaya Gazeta and 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, in a YouTube interview. Latvian media spread his words on 30 September 2022, the evening before the Saeima election. Šlesers had no time to respond before the vote.
KNAB examined these claims for almost two years and in 2024 reported: no confirmation. Muratov himself presented no evidence, and SAB had no such information either.
Šlesers' position: it is a lie and pre-election smear. He himself asked KNAB and the security police to open a defamation case. What is true: after leaving politics he set up a logistics company together with Russian Railways (RZD), as confirmed by the head of SAB.
In the 2006 Saeima election, LPP/LC exceeded the spending limit by about 401,000 lats. KNAB put the party's debt to the state at 528,870 lats, about €752,500. The party was re-registered and then liquidated in 2011, and the debt was never paid. No court ruled on this debt.
Šlesers' position: the fine was ordered by his opponents inside KNAB. We found no documents in open sources that confirm or refute this.
On 7 December 2013, long before the war, at the congress of the United for Latvia party, he said the government should sit down with Russia's leadership and negotiate, as Germany does. These are his own words, recorded by LSM.
What happened next: after Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022, his party officially condemned Putin's invasion and expelled two MPs who refused to back that position and EU candidate status for Ukraine.
The "Prime Minister Šlesers" campaign was paid for by the Latvia First society. KNAB ruled it was party advertising, and companies are banned from funding parties. The party was ordered to return the money. This is not a fine. By June €90,000 had been returned, and by September the party had raised donations for the full amount. There is no official confirmation yet that everything has been returned.
Šlesers' position: it was his personal campaign, the posters carry no party symbols, and the law itself is badly made.
In the European Parliament election, KNAB fined three parties, including Latvia First, for reporting the placement of campaign materials late. Total for all three: €2,800.
Found and checked against documents and open sources
After the 2026 election, Šlesers said his party's 17 MPs were ready to back Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs' government even without ministerial posts. He promises to vote for Kulbergs' reforms and for tough, even unpopular decisions: merging agencies and cutting spending.
While he headed the Ministry of Transport, the European Commission approved five Latvian transport projects: 110.5 km of the Via Baltica and A12 roads, 260 km of track replaced on the East–West line, access routes to the ports of Ventspils and Liepāja, and the Riga Airport runway extended to 3,200 m. The EU provided €165.9 m of the €384.3 m.
The new runway alone cost €23.5 m. Since October 2008 Riga has been able to take heavy aircraft such as the Airbus A340 and Boeing 747.
In May 2005 he agreed with the head of Tallink on a daily Riga — Stockholm route. It opened in April 2006 and carried 5.5 million passengers in its first 10 years.
In 2007 the government adopted the road safety programme he had signed: halve the number of road deaths by 2010. The target was reached a year early: 558 deaths in 2001, 254 in 2009. Latvia received the ETSC Road Safety PIN Award 2009.
Experts also put part of the 2008–2009 drop down to the crisis: there were fewer cars on the roads.
When Latvijas Pasts was losing millions and failing to deliver the press, he proposed a new head, and on his ministry's report the government allowed the post office to take a loan. In 2008 the loss shrank fourfold: from 14.1 to 3.66 m lats.
While he was minister, airBaltic, majority-owned by the state, grew from 0.59 m passengers in 2004 to 2.6 m in 2008, and its fleet to 28 aircraft. The company's social tax for 2008 alone was 7 m lats, about €10 m.
From July 2009 he chaired the board of the Freeport of Riga. In crisis-hit 2009 the port handled a record 29.7 m tonnes, and in 2010 it topped 30 m tonnes for the first time in its history.
As Deputy Prime Minister he led the government working group on improving the business climate, opened a London office of the Latvian Development Agency and championed an investment agency built on the "one-stop shop" principle. LIAA was set up in 2004 and still operates today.
As Minister of Economics he removed Ventspils mayor Aivars Lembergs from his role as the state's representative at Ventspils Nafta. Even Prime Minister Krištopans, who was demanding his resignation, called it the minister's "only professionally bold step".
Standing in for the Prime Minister, he signed the rules on an allowance for adoptive parents: 1,000 lats per child. At the end of 2004 the ministry reported that, for the first time since independence was restored, not a single baby under one without serious health problems was waiting to be adopted, thanks in part to the allowance.
On a proposal from Latvia's First Party (LPP), which he co-founded, the Saeima wrote protection of marriage as a union of a man and a woman into Article 110 of the Constitution: 65 votes for, 6 against. The amendment was backed by more than 10,000 citizens' signatures.
On 25 June 2008 Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko awarded him, then Latvia's Minister of Transport, the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 3rd class, "for a significant personal contribution to the development of Ukrainian-Latvian cooperation".
He collected the signatures of 34 MPs, and the Saeima set up an inquiry committee into the consequences of the financial sector "overhaul" and the closure of ABLV, PNB and Baltic International Bank. The committee proposed lifting the excess burden on businesses caused by inflated requirements for bank customers.
By his account, a sacral tourism programme was created on his proposal, and many churches in Latvia received money for repairs. In 2006 Cardinal Jānis Pujats, Archbishop Jānis Vanags and Bishop Pēteris Sprogis publicly thanked his party for this money.
Corporate income tax was cut from 25% to 15%. It reached 15% in 2004, when he was Deputy Prime Minister
Baltic Times, 2003Everything is already on the scales. Tap a circle to take it off the pan or put it back
Railway wages doubled: from 261 to 533 lats over 2004–2007
LDz Report 2007Confirmed amounts only. Hatching means the money is promised but not yet fully invested, or it is a prosecution claim that has not been proven.
investment under the residence permit programme, 2010–2024, 19,900 permits
Riga Waterfront, under construction since 2025
unpaid fine of his former party
On documents alone, up to €4.8 bn of gains against €0.75 m of losses. Even counting the unproven €3 m in the digital TV case, the gains outweigh the losses hundreds of times over. Šlesers' own estimate, citing Deloitte, puts the total effect of the residence permits even higher, but we have not verified it and do not include it in the total.
Millions of euros, one scale. The minuses are barely visible: they are hundreds and thousands of times smaller than the pluses.
"Document" = a figure from a report. "Calculation" = arithmetic on official data.
Document19,900 permits. He calls the programme his initiative
Calculationspending rose from €177 m in 2003, before Ryanair arrived, to €574 m in 2008. Growth over the 2003 level added up over 5 years. The years of Ryanair and the hub airport
Calculationthe average LDz wage doubled, from 261 to 533 lats, across 13–15 thousand employees
Documentsocial tax only. He was the first director of Rimi Baltija; the chain's turnover is now about €1.2 bn a year
DocumentVID data, published years only. The family owns the group through a holding company, with 50% held by the Šķēle family
Promisedunder construction since 2025. Investor Eagle Hills from Abu Dhabi; the Šlesers family has a small stake in the project
Documentthe EU Cohesion Fund approved five Latvian projects while he was Minister of Transport: the Via Baltica and A12 roads, 260 km of track, port access routes, the airport runway. Total cost €384.3 m
≈ €3 bn already received and €3 bn in progress
Tourism and wage growth were also driven by EU accession and the economic boom. The microenterprise tax is not included: documents show it was pushed by Kampars and Bērziņš.
Cannot be counted: there is no open data. So it is not added to the sum.
€6 bn documented plus ≈ €4.4 bn estimated tourism for 2009–2019. This is an estimate, not a document
Airport passengers, 2009 vs 2008
Over 2004–2008 Riga grew 3.5 times, from 1.06 to 3.69 m, and Vilnius 2.1 times. He was minister until March 2009.
Latvia First (LPV): elections and initiatives
foster families under the Ministry for Children and Family, run by his party
playgrounds built in the same years
cheap direct flights from Riga to Europe after his negotiations
Rimi, Narvesen, Cubus, Dressmann and new shopping centres came to Latvia
in one marriage, five children
residence permits for investment from 2010 to 2024; the first money came at the height of the crisis
Where he was a founder, manager, initiator or co-owner. Each role is stated as the sources confirm it.
CEO in 1996–1997, when the first Rimi store in Latvia opened. Rimi was the first of the three largest chains to arrive; in 2020 it had 133 stores and more than 6,000 employees.
Cubus, Dressmann, Bik Bok, 1994–1998. With Dressmann in Riga in 1995, the Varner group began expanding abroad. By 1998 Norway's Varner and Hakon had invested $40 m in Latvia.
The former Centrs department store in Old Riga, 1995–1998.
Mols, Origo, Olimpija, Dole, Alfa, Minska through joint ventures.
A kiosk chain replacing the Soviet Soyuzpechat newsstands.
The Latvija and Ridzene hotels in central Riga.
His company won the tender for the site and started the project. The tower was built by Merks and Hansabanka in 2004: the first skyscraper of independent Latvia, now Swedbank's office.
Šlesers' position: he is the author of the idea and the founding father of Saliena; he bought up the land for the new town together with Frank Varner. According to documents, he was a co-owner of Saliena Real, the project's first company, and sold his shares in 2002. In November 2002 he became Deputy Prime Minister.
The Ryanair deal; passenger numbers grew 5.7 times over 2003–2009.
In 2005 he agreed a daily route with Tallink. Over 10 years it carried 5.5 m passengers.
He calls the programme his initiative. €1.64 bn of investment over 2010–2024.
"Mothers' salaries", a maintenance fund, about 300 playgrounds.
A party since 2021. 17 seats in the Saeima in 2026.
A major port group in Riga: terminals, stevedoring, containers and its own railway. About 400 jobs and more than €14 m in payroll taxes for 2023–2025.
A new district on Andrejsala, €3 bn from an Abu Dhabi investor, under construction since 2025. The land was bought from the state for €5.8 m, 5.2 times its cadastral value. Riga has not put any money into the project.
Business, the airport, transport through the crisis, residence permits, family support, growing voter trust. All with links to documents.
The loudest ones were not confirmed: KNAB found the "Putin money" claim unconfirmed, the "oligarchs case" was closed, and the digital TV case ended in two acquittals.
The unpaid debt of his former party from the 2006 election, his 2013 remarks about negotiating with Russia, the dissolution of the Saeima in 2011, and the €340,000 returned for advertising in 2026.
AI series. The video was created with artificial intelligence.