Rihards Kozlovskis (born 26 May 1969) is a Latvian politician and lawyer. He has served as the Minister of the Interior of Latvia since 2023;he had previously served in the same position from 2011 to 2019. He is a member of Unity.[1] Between 2011 and 2014 he was a member of the Reform Party.[2]
Kozlovskis was born in 1969 in Riga.[3] He first attended Riga Primary School No. 69 from 1976 to 1986,but switched to Murjani Sports Gymnasium in the 1986 school year and graduated from there in 1987.[4] In 1993 he graduated from the Latvian Academy of Sport Education for his postsecondary education.[5] In 1991,he started working as an inspector for the Ministry of the Interior before later that year becoming an inspector in the Government Security Service until 1993.[2] From 1994 to 1996,while studying,he served as senior inspector at the State Department of Economic Sovereignty Protection. [2] He then worked at the Security Police until 2005,eventually becoming deputy chief of the police department.[2] He then qualified to become a lawyer through the Faculty of Law at the University of Latvia in 2003.[1]
Political career
Kozlovskis was appointed Interior Minister on 25 October 2011.[6]
On 7 December 2015,Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma resigned.[7] In her resignation press release,she recommended Kozlovskis as her successor.[8]
He was once again named Minister of the Interior as part of Evika Siliņa's cabinet on 15 September 2023.[9] He has focused during his time on minister getting ready underground shelters to prepare a defense after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[10] He also focused on closing the borders,saying the country was in a "hybrid border war".[11]
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