Disposable: The ordinary people doing Russia’s dirty work

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The life Vasilij Kovacs knew ended with a bang. It was late afternoon on March 1, 2025, when an armored vehicle smashed through the metal gate of the old farmhouse where he lived southeast of the Latvian capital, Riga. Masked men emerged with their guns drawn. They belonged to Latvia’s State Security Service, the country’s counterintelligence agency. The officers searched the property, seizing several mobile phones, SIM cards and documents, along with a pistol with its serial number filed off, a bayonet from an AK-47 and a cellphone jammer, according to a search report later filed by the authorities. They arrested Kovacs, a Ukrainian man in his 60s who has lived in Latvia for more than 30 years.