CNN - November 26, 1999

RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- An 85-year-old retired security official has been charged with genocide for participating in Soviet repression in the 1940s, part a long-running drive to bring Stalinist-era agents to trial, the Baltic News Service reported Friday.

Vassily Kirsanov was arrested Wednesday and charged with genocide, according to the report. He is the fourth person to face the charge since October, and the ninth since Latvia broke with Moscow in 1991, after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Kirsanov, who began working for the Soviet secret police in 1941, a year after the Soviet Union forcibly annexed Latvia, is accused of participating in the arrest of 32 people and the deportation of many others, BNS said.

One of his alleged victims was a high-school boy, arrested and later executed for participating in Latvia's boy scouts, BNS said, citing sources at the prosecutor general's office.

Millions of people were deported and killed during Josef Stalin's 25-year iron reign, but most former Soviet republics aren't pursuing prosecutions.

In all three Baltic states, however, efforts to hunt down those responsible for Stalinist crimes are in full swing. Across the region, 10 people have been convicted, including two in Latvia.

The Baltic states say the prosecutions are primarily meant to shed light on the dark Stalinist past. But Moscow has accused them of exacting revenge on ailing, elderly men, many of whom hold Russian passports. Kirsanov's national background could not immediately be determined.

Russian Ambassador to Latvia, Alexander Udaltsov, was quoted as telling the Baltic News Service in October that proceedings against the retired Soviet officials could damage Latvian-Russian relations.

"It creates the impression that a true witch hunt has been launched in Latvia," he said.