Andrejs Mamikins
| Andrejs Mamikins | |
|---|---|
| Member of the European Parliament for Latvia | |
|
Assumed office 1 July 2014 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
11 March 1976 Leningrad, Soviet Union |
| Political party | Harmony |
| Alma mater | University of Latvia |
| Profession | Journalist |
Andrejs Mamikins (Russian: Андрей Мамыкин, Andrey Mamykin; born 11 March 1976) is a Latvian politician and journalist and a Member of the European Parliament.
Early life and career
Mamikins was born in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) then in the Soviet Union, and moved to Riga, Latvia with his parents shortly after birth.[1]
Prior to his election, Mamikins was a journalist working for several Latvian Russian-language newspapers, radio stations and television channels. He presented programs on Viasat's TV5 Latvia and on REN TV's Baltic Channel. He studied Russian language and literature and is a graduate of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Latvia. In 2010 he completed a master's degree in philology from the same institution.
Member of the European Parliament, 2014–present
Mamikins was elected to the European Parliament at the 2014 European Parliament election for the Harmony party.[2] Although he was placed 4th on the Harmony list (Boriss Cilevičs was placed 1st), he was preferenced first on the list by Latvian voters and took the party's single seat in the Parliament. He sits with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group.
He has since been a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. In this capacity, he served as the parliament’s rapporteur on the Association Agreement between the EU and Georgia.
Controversy
When Mamikins filed his declaration of financial interests in the European Parliament in mid-2014, this was promptly refused on the grounds that Russian is not an official language of the European Union. Mamikins publicized the incident on social media, making waves in Latvia’s ethnic-Russian community, roughly a quarter of the population.[3]
References
- ↑ "Latvieši, mīliet mūs, ar arābiem jums būs grūtāk" (in Latvian). Diena.lv. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
- ↑ "Oficiālie rezultāti: Pirmo reizi EP krēslos sēdīsies Pabriks, Mamikins un Grigule" (in Latvian). Diena.lv. May 26, 2014. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
- ↑ Andrew Gardner (December 18, 2014), Latvian citizens caught in the EU-Russia crossfire European Voice.