Neil Ushakov born on June 8, 1976 in the capital of Latvia - Riga. He has a higher education and is married. Fluent in Russian, Latvian and English. Can communicate in German, Danish, Swedish. He enjoys running and cycling.

Economist by training, Neil in 1999. became a bachelor of the University of Latvia with a degree in analytical economics. Lived and studied in Denmark, where in 2002. received a Master's degree (Cand.oecon) from the University of Southern Denmark in the field of economics and European integration. At one time he worked at the Eurofaculty of the University of Latvia.

Nil Ushakov tried his hand at journalism, working in senior positions for seven years in various publications. For his contribution to Latvian journalism in 2004. was awarded the “Cicero” award established by the Union of Journalists of Latvia and the University of Latvia.

In 2005 became a member of the Party of People's Harmony and in the same year was elected to the post of chairman of the political association "Center of Harmony". He is still the permanent leader of this political association.

In 2006 Nil Ushakov was elected as a deputy to the Seimas of the Republic of Latvia. He headed the Riga list from the “Consent Center” in the municipal elections in 2009. The largest faction of the Riga City Council won the majority of votes. Since July 1, 2009 Ushakov is the chairman of the Riga City Council.

The main priorities of Nil Ushakov’s work as mayor of the city can be identified in the following areas: housing construction, tourism development, providing social support to the population, safety and order on the city streets.

Over three years of work, Nil Ushakov managed to achieve real changes. Non-working pensioners and school students received free travel on public transport. A lot of housing was put into operation, take for example the residential complex at Ulbrokas Street 13, consisting of five apartment buildings. The queue of Riga residents for housing has been significantly reduced.

Schools and kindergartens owned by the city have been renovated; in total, about 74 million lats have been sold for these purposes.

Much attention is paid to the renovation of numerous medical institutions. And these are not just words, thanks to the efforts of Nil Ushakov, the First Riga City Hospital, which is on the verge of closure, not only continues to operate, but is also developing further. The 2nd city hospital, the Riga maternity hospital, and a number of regional medical institutions were renovated.

The head of the city council does not deprive himself of his attention to cultural objects. The Riga City Council, headed by Nil Ushakov, without expecting state support, helped carry out renovations in the building of the Riga Russian Theater. M. Chekhov, repair work is being carried out at the Ziemelblazma cultural center, a project for the reconstruction of the National Art Museum has already been developed.

Nil Ushakov perfectly resolves issues related to the queue for kindergartens. The number of places in municipal preschool institutions has increased significantly. Thanks to the co-financing program carried out by the Riga City Council, parents of children attending private kindergartens are paid a monthly allowance. At the same time, they do not lose their turn at the municipal kindergarten.

Every effort is made to support Latvian commodity producers, and marketing activities are also carried out to promote their goods on the Russian market. As part of the Riga Brand project, three specialized Riga Yard stores have already been built.

A new tradition was born - the mass celebration of Ligo and New Year holidays in the center of Riga. Folk festivals, all kinds of concerts and other entertainment events these days attract most of the residents of Riga and guests of the capital to the Embankment and squares. On these days, travel on public transport is free.

Thanks to the personal initiative of N. Ushakov, free training courses on studying the state language began in Riga. Even people who speak some Latvian can attend courses to improve their existing knowledge.

Last year, 2012, the Riga municipality began implementing a program for the repair of all intra-block roads, designed for 4 years. By 2016, all internal roads of the Latvian capital must be put in order.

Riga's beaches did not go unnoticed by the mayor. In recent years, life-saving and first aid stations have been fully landscaped and equipped. Buoys for children's bathing were installed, and a lot of other useful work was done.

To maintain order and ensure the safety of residents and guests of the capital, Nil Ushakov is pursuing a policy of supporting municipal

police. Salaries for law enforcement officers are indexed, and the material and technical base is constantly being improved. Much attention is paid to the level of professional training of police officers.

In 2012 The program for the improvement and reconstruction of parks and green areas of the city was launched. Considerable funds from the city budget will be invested in Riga's parks and gardens to put them in order. It is planned to create two new park areas.

Cycling enthusiast Nil Ushakov is making sure that Riga becomes as suitable as possible for cyclists. Encouraging sports training is a promising area of activity for the mayor.

Conducted surveys show that about 80.6% of the population evaluate the work of Nil Ushakov in the mayor’s chair positively. Such high popular support and authority makes the current mayor an excellent politician and a true leader of the city council. The Riga City Council satisfies 71% of the population with its activities, which is the highest figure since 1997, i.e. since the start of public opinion polls.
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Biography

Neil Valerievich Ushakov is a Latvian politician, mayor of the city of Riga since July 1, 2009. In 2006-2009 was a member of parliament.

Education

An economist by training. In 1998, he became the first student at the University of Latvia to receive a bachelor's degree in economics with a specialization in analytical economics.

Lived and studied in Denmark in Odense. In 2002 he received a Cand. oecon (Master in the Latvian system) at the University of Southern Denmark (Syddansk Universitet) with a specialization in Economics and European Integration. He worked at the University of Latvia at the European Faculty.

Working in journalism

In 1998-1999 - producer of the Baltic branch of the Russian television channel NTV.

From 1999 to 2000 - correspondent for the Latvian public television news service LTV.

From April 2000 to September 2001 - editor of the news and politics department of the Respublika newspaper.

From September 2001 to July 2002 - editor of the news and politics department of the Telegraph newspaper.

In 2001-2004, he was the presenter and editor of the weekly program “Theme of the Week,” broadcast on TV5 Riga. Co-producer, editor and host of the election show “Russian Question”, also aired on TV5 Riga.

From March 2004 to November 2005 - editor of the news service of the First Baltic Channel; preparing news releases for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Since January 2005 - editor of evening news for Lithuania and Estonia of the First Baltic Channel.

In 2004, he was awarded the Cicero Award for his contribution to journalism, established by the Latvian Union of Journalists and the University of Latvia. He was a member of the board of the public organization “Baltic Forum”, where he was engaged in economic analytics.

Policy

Association "Center of Harmony"

In the summer of 2005 he joined the Party of People's Accord. In November 2005, he was unanimously elected chairman of the political association "Center of Harmony", which includes the Party of People's Harmony. Since then he has been the permanent leader of the association.

He considers his main task as chairman of the Center for Harmony to be the transformation of the association into an influential social-democratic movement.

Seimas of the Republic of Latvia

In October 2006, he was elected to the 9th Saeima of Latvia. Under his leadership, the Harmony Center association achieved convincing success in the elections of the 9th Seimas in 2006, and the association still has the largest faction in the Seimas. Nil Ushakov became one of the youngest members of parliament, where he dealt with issues of international politics and the European Union. In 2009, he resigned from parliament to take part in the elections to the Riga City Council.

Mayor of Riga

In the 2009 municipal elections, Nil Ushakov and his association achieved record results in the elections to the Riga Duma, receiving 26 seats out of 60. To date, no party in the modern history of Riga has managed to achieve such representation.

Ushakov sees the development of the city economy as priority tasks - the spheres of tourism, construction, transport (Riga port and airport), services and leisure. The task is also to maintain social expenditures and expenses for maintaining law and order in the city with the necessary reduction in budget expenditures for other purposes.

Among the priority measures aimed at overcoming the consequences of the crisis was the decision to reduce the administrative costs of the mayor's office and its staff by a third, including two out of three deputy mayors. From the first day of work in self-government, he chose social support for the population, housing construction, order and safety on the city streets, and tourism development as his priorities. Throughout the three years of this convocation, the priorities remained unchanged and a lot was achieved:

Non-working pensioners and secondary school students are provided with free travel on public transport.

From 2009 to 2011, housing construction and renovation continued to reduce the queue of people in need. The increase in the volume of delivery of social housing during the leadership of Nil Ushakov was accompanied not only by comments on the quality of the housing being delivered, but also by the largest scandals in the modern history of Latvia at the level of the administration of the apartment management of the Riga City Council, with the announcement of his persons involved in the international wanted list.

The Riga City Council, under the leadership of Nil Ushakov, has set a unique record for optimizing the education system in Riga. In just 3 years, 11 schools with Russian language of instruction, 4 schools with Latvian language of instruction and one mixed school were closed in Riga. In particular, the oldest Russian school, which even survived the evacuation from Riga in 1915, was closed - the Lomonosov school.

Simultaneously with setting a record for the number of closed schools, the problem of queues in municipal kindergartens is being successfully resolved. Over three years, the number of places in preschool institutions has increased by 4,232. However, in this social sphere, by the end of 2013, extremely unusual saving methods were announced.

Renovation of municipal medical institutions also continues. At the end of 2010, a five-year plan for the reconstruction of the oldest city hospital, the 1st Riga Hospital, was approved. In 2009, the state intended to close this hospital, but the Riga City Council found funds to maintain the hospital in the city center. The buildings of the 2nd City Hospital, the Riga Maternity Hospital, as well as a number of district clinics have already been partially renovated and continue to be renovated.

The Riga City Council, under the leadership of Nil Ushakov, carried out renovations of the Ziemelblazma cultural center and developed a project for the reconstruction of the National Art Museum.

Nil Ušakov claims that the number of tourists to the capital of Latvia has increased thanks to the successful advertising program Live Riga, within which, since 2009, advertising of Riga as a tourist center began abroad. In 2012, an absolute record was set - more than 1,500,000 tourists visited Riga, which was broken in 2013 and, according to Nil Ushakov, Riga was already visited by 1.7 million tourists.

A lot of money was spent on advertising and promoting the “Riga Brand” project, in order to improve the promotion of Riga and Latvian products on the Russian market, but this project did not bring any visible results and initially the project was brought to an absurd situation when the true owner of this brand was not clear.

On the personal initiative of Nil Ushakov, the self-government spent part of the Riga budget to finance teaching the state language, despite the fact that the state had already spent more than 12 million lats for these purposes and more than 55 thousand Riga residents had taken Latvian language courses paid for by Latvia by that time.

The capital's self-government, under the leadership of Nil Ushakov, spent a lot of budget funds to clean up and improve Riga's beaches. For example, 145 thousand lats were allocated for the maintenance and improvement of the beaches of Bullyu Island.

Order in the city and the safety of Riga residents and tourists - from the very beginning of Nil Ushakov’s work in the capital, were declared as one of the priorities. Despite the economic crisis, the salaries of municipal police officers were not reduced, and no savings were made on equipping the city police. However, this did not in any way affect the ability of the Riga municipal police to resist the unrestricted distribution of narcotic drugs, which cause dire consequences and have a significant impact on the safety of all residents and guests of the city. The lack of control of the situation led to the organization of mass protests, calls and even repeated cases of arson of places where dangerous substances were traded (with victims), and calls for lynching.

Changes under the leadership of Nil Ushakov were also promised in the parks and gardens of Riga - in total, in order to put the city parks in order, it was planned to invest approximately 2.5 million lats from the city budget and 4.7 million lats from European Union funds. With these funds they promised to tidy up the areas around the Maras pond, AB dam, Grizinkalns and its surroundings, Plavnieku park, Ziedondarzs and others. A new, equipped park has been created in the northern part of Lucavsala. In 2011-2013, the Ziemelblazma cultural center and the adjacent park were renovated.

Social activity

In 2006, he became one of the founders of the non-political youth organization “We are on the same path!” The goals of this organization are to help students from Russian-language schools find their place in life and achieve success. To achieve this, the organization conducts free lectures and seminars, organizes KVN and supports the games “What? Where? When?”, publishes its own newspaper with a circulation of 5,000 copies, organizes trips for young people to summer camps abroad and creates a discussion club. Hundreds of schoolchildren took part in various events of the organization.

He participated in the creation of the society “9maya.lv”, which since 2008 has been actively involved in organizing festive events dedicated to Victory Day.

personal information

In 1999, he underwent the naturalization procedure and became a citizen of Latvia. Neil's parents remain non-citizens.

Speaks fluent Russian (native language), English and Latvian, knows German, Danish and Swedish at a basic level. Professes Orthodoxy. In his free time from work, he enjoys sports - running and cycling.

Family

Father is from Kronstadt.
Mother - Lyudmila Ushakova
First wife - Maria Ushakova, journalist (divorced since spring 2009)

Second wife - Elena Ushakova (nee Sukhareva, married since January 2010), Master of Economics from the University of Latvia, chairman of the board of the youth organization “We are on the way!”, editor of the magazine “Young.lv”, director of a cafe in the Spikeri quarter, renovated by the Riga City Council under the leadership of Nil Ushakov

Third wife - On November 19, 2014, the mayor of Riga Nil Ushakov and Iveta Strautina got married in the Riga Nativity Cathedral. Iveta Strautiņa has a son Edgar (b. 2000) from her first marriage

Son Tom, born 03/18/2015

Incident at the Riga Marathon

On May 22, 2011, he took part in the Riga Marathon at the half marathon distance (21 km). At the twentieth kilometer he lost consciousness and was taken in an unconscious state to the intensive care unit of the Stradins University Clinical Hospital and on May 24, in a state of medically induced coma, was transported to the Charite clinic in Berlin. On May 28, Nil Ushakov returned to consciousness. On July 9, the mayor returned to Riga, and on July 11, he began work.

Doctors diagnosed Ushakov with rhabdomyolysis, a syndrome that is an extreme degree of myopathy and is characterized by the destruction of muscle tissue cells, a sharp increase in the level of creatine kinase and myoglobin, myoglobinuria, and the development of acute renal failure. During the treatment, doctors were afraid of the need for a liver transplant, which was subsequently not required.

On May 27, an account for donations was opened for Ushakov’s treatment, to which over four thousand people transferred their funds. About 180 thousand lats (253 thousand euros) were donated to the mayor. Treatment in a Berlin clinic, as well as transportation to Germany, cost 68,370 euros. The remaining funds from the donations will be used to organize treatment for Latvian children abroad.

Nil Valerievich Ushakov is a Latvian politician, mayor of the city of Riga since July 1, 2009. In 2006-2009 was a member of parliament. Chairman of the political association "Consent Center".

On July 1, 2009, Nil Ushakov was elected mayor of Riga. In the 2009 municipal elections, Nil Ushakov and his association achieved record results in the elections to the Riga Duma, receiving 26 seats out of 60. To date, no party in the modern history of Riga has managed to achieve such representation.

Ushakov sees the development of the city economy as a priority - the sphere of tourism, construction, transport (Riga port and airport), services and leisure. The task is also to maintain social expenditures and expenses for maintaining law and order in the city with the necessary reduction in budget expenditures for other purposes.

Non-working pensioners and secondary school students are provided with free travel on public transport;

In the period from 2009 to 2011, construction and renovation of housing was continued to reduce the queue of those in need. The increase in the volume of delivery of social housing during the leadership of Nil Ushakov was accompanied not only by comments on the quality of the housing being delivered, but also by the largest scandals in the modern history of Latvia at the level of the administration of the apartment management of the Riga City Council, with the announcement of his persons involved in the international wanted list.

The Riga City Council under the leadership of Nil Ushakov has set a kind of record for optimizing the education system in Riga. In just 3 years, 11 schools with Russian language of instruction, 4 schools with Latvian language of instruction and one mixed school were closed in Riga. In particular, the oldest Russian school, which even survived the evacuation from Riga in 1915, was closed - the Lomonosov school.

At the same time as setting a record for the number of closed schools, the problem of queues in municipal kindergartens is being successfully solved. Over three years, the number of places in preschool institutions increased by 4,232. However, in this social sphere, by the end of 2013, extremely unusual saving methods were announced;

Renovation of municipal medical institutions continues. At the end of 2010, a five-year plan for the reconstruction of the oldest city hospital, the 1st Riga Hospital, was approved. In 2009, the state intended to close this hospital, but the Riga City Council found funds to maintain the hospital in the city center. The buildings of the 2nd city hospital, the Riga maternity hospital, as well as a number of district clinics have already been partially repaired and continue to be repaired;

The Riga City Council, under the leadership of Nil Ushakov, carried out renovations of the Ziemelblazma cultural center, developed a project for the reconstruction of the National Art Museum;

Thanks to the successful advertising program Live Riga, within the framework of which Riga as a tourist center was advertised abroad in 2009, the number of tourists to the capital of Latvia has increased significantly. In 2012, an absolute record was set - more than 1,500,000 tourists visited Riga.

The capital's self-government under the leadership of Nil Ushakov spent a lot of budget funds to clean up and improve Riga's beaches. For example, 145 thousand lats were allocated for the maintenance and improvement of the beaches of Bullyu Island.

Order in the city and the safety of Riga residents and tourists - from the very beginning of Nil Ushakov’s work in the capital, they were declared as one of the priorities. Despite the economic crisis, the salaries of municipal police officers were not reduced, and no savings were made on equipping the city police. However, this did not in any way affect the ability of the Riga municipal police to resist the unrestricted distribution of narcotic drugs, which cause dire consequences and have a significant impact on the safety of all residents and guests of the city. The lack of control of the situation led to the organization of mass protests, calls and even repeated cases of arson of places where dangerous substances were traded (with victims), and calls for lynching.

Changes under the management of Nil Ushakov were also promised in the parks and gardens of Riga - in total, in order to put the city parks in order, it was planned to invest approximately 2.5 million lats from the city budget and 4.7 million lats from European Union funds. With these funds they promised to tidy up the areas around the Maras pond, AB dam, Grizinkalns and its surroundings, Plavnieku park, Ziedondarzs and others. A new, equipped park has been created in the northern part of Lucavsala.

Changed: 18.2.2016

Head of the Harmony party. This year has generally been extremely successful for him. Last summer, for example, the residents of Riga entrusted him with the position of mayor for the third time. However, recently, from the Russian community, Ushakov, whom many perceived as a pro-Russian politician, has been receiving a hail of reproaches: he is accused of hypocrisy and of increasingly looking to the West, forgetting about his promise to defend the interests of national minorities. I tried to figure out who he really is, this kungs Ushakov.

Change of vector

Harmony is the main opposition party in Latvia, with the largest faction in parliament and the mayor of Riga. This was achieved largely thanks to the authority of its leader. Until recently, the slogan “Neil, we are with you!” was one of the most popular in the country. The overwhelming majority of the “Soglasist” electorate are Russian-speaking, for which political opponents like to reproach Ushakov’s party for being “the hand of Moscow.” In Russia, this version is also popular - it is not without reason that after the parliamentary elections in Latvia in both 2011 and 2014, the Russian media were full of headlines in the spirit of “The pro-Russian party won.”

However, two consecutive victories in the elections to the Seimas brought Ushakov’s supporters only moral satisfaction - the Latvian parties, having united in a coalition, did not allow the “consenters” to come to power. Trying to somehow break this vicious circle, Neil Valerievich has long been trying to gain support and establish special relations with the leadership of the United States and, of which the Republic of Latvia is so proud of its membership. Thus, three years ago, returning from Washington, where he participated in consultations with representatives, the mayor of Riga meaningfully stated: “The United States is our important ally and partner. Consultations between Latvia’s largest party and our friends from the United States take place regularly both in Riga and during similar trips.” And after some time, Neil Valerievich published a selfie against the backdrop of American tanks being unloaded in the port of Riga. Later in his Facebook he posted a photo with the famous senator.

The mayor is accused of building his popularity according to the laws of show business, chasing primarily a bright, juicy picture. He does what can be quickly demonstrated to voters in newspapers and on television: free travel for pensioners on public transport, renovation of schools and kindergartens, organization of mass celebrations for Riga residents. However, voters are growing tired of Ushakov and the understandable desire to “change the picture” is intensifying. At the beginning of June this year, municipal elections were held in Latvia. Ushakov retained his mayoral post. But his popularity has waned - now his party has only 32 out of 60 seats in the capital, and not 39, as before.

In less than a year, in October 2018, the next parliamentary elections will be held in Latvia. Neil Valerievich, dreaming of seeing his party in the ruling coalition, is now doing his best to wash Harmony of its “pro-Russian” image. Last summer, the second person in “Consent” promised that the party, most likely, would not terminate the cooperation agreement it had with. Latvians have been reproaching Harmony for this agreement in recent years. But a month passed, and Ushakov announced that the agreement was no longer valid. And in early November, the Latvian publication Nezavisimaya Utrennyaya Gazeta published information that Ushakov, using his connections in the Party of European Socialists, was looking for ways to meet with the NATO Secretary General. The capital's mayor hoped that, as part of his cooperation with NATO, representatives of the military bloc would participate in the education program of the Riga self-government - in particular, visit Russian-language schools in order to help with their stories to increase confidence in the alliance among young people.

However, Stoltenberg did not deign to talk to Neil Valerievich. A lower-ranking official, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy Takan Ildem, spoke with Ushakov in the presence of specially called Latvian diplomatic representatives. After this, the Latvian officially expressed bewilderment and dissatisfaction with Ushakov’s attempt to approach the leadership of the alliance from the back porch, bypassing the official protocol. “If he wanted some kind of closer cooperation with NATO structures, it was necessary to talk about this not at the main office of the alliance, but in Latvia, in,” the department said.

Political twine

But the most unpleasant event for the mayor of Riga, which literally put him on the “political splits,” is the government’s recent decision to transfer teaching in schools for national minorities to the Latvian language. Ruling politicians, including President Raimonds Vējonis, quickly came to a consensus on this matter. In response to this, the Headquarters for the Protection of Russian Schools held mass protest rallies in Riga. It was expected that Harmony, based on the votes of Russian-speaking voters, would support the protest - but everything was limited to Ushakov’s vague promise to “protect both Latvian and Russian schools.”

At the end of November, Ushakov held meetings with the head of government, Maris Kucinskis, and the Minister of Education, following which he announced that from September 1, 2019, the Riga municipality will provide additional classes for national minorities in the capital’s schools to master subjects in their native language. This means that after a physics lesson in Latvian, the student will go to an additional lesson, where the same topic will be explained to him in his native language. According to preliminary estimates, the cost of this program per year will be about 2 million euros. Trying to sweeten the pill, the mayor clarified that no one would force Russian-speaking children to sit extra hours at their desks when their Latvian peers go to play on the street. “Additional activities will be integrated into the Homework program. Schools will be given freedom to choose both the number of hours and the list of subjects. The decision will be made by the administration and parents,” Ushakov said.

Public figure Ilya Kozyrev explained to Lenta.ru: the mayor’s indecision on the school issue is due to the fact that he is forced to share power in the capital with his coalition partner, the organization “Honor to Serve Riga.” “This is a small but influential party of Latvian oligarchs. And the Czech Republic decided on its position on the Latvianization of Russian schools a long time ago. They believe that transferring schools of national minorities to Latvian is not a problem. Therefore, taking some other position for Ushakov would mean risking the integrity of the coalition and power,” says Kozyrev. In his opinion, Ushakov, having a large party, the mayorship in Riga and the largest faction in parliament, could, if he wanted, hold large protests throughout the country, cause an international outcry and thus disrupt the “school reform.” True, after this he would have to say goodbye to the hope of a place in the parliamentary coalition and ministerial posts in the government of the next convocation - the ruling parties would not forgive Ushakov for such a demarche. “It seems that the deputies from “Consent” have other plans for using their considerable resources, much more important than protecting Russian schools. Therefore, we will go to the next rally again without them,” Kozyrev.letter notes with sadness. Having expressed disagreement with this decision, he complained that the question of whether “Consent” should terminate the agreement with United Russia was not widely discussed in the party - that is, the decision was made behind the scenes at the very top. And soon the MEP was surprised to learn that the leadership of “Consent” refused to invite him to the party congress held on December 9. Speaking at the congress, Ushakov said significantly that when nominating candidates for the elections to the European Parliament, the party made mistakes. And he promised to take a closer look at those who plan to run for office using the “Consent” platform.

As for the schools of national minorities, Ushakov emphasized at the congress: it would be wrong to call them “Russian,” since 60 percent of the subjects there since 2004 are already taught in Latvian. The mayor of Riga pointed out the uselessness of pickets and rallies; moreover, he called their organizers nationalists. “Our proposal alone (about additional classes in Russian) is called anti-Latvian and illegal activity. Others say we betrayed the Russians. This means we are doing the right thing. If your actions are not liked by nationalists on all sides, then this is right for the development of the country as a whole. Our most important mission is peace and stability between Latvians and non-Latvians,”

Nil Valerievich Ushakov (according to his passport - Nil Ushakov) was born on June 8, 1976 in Riga into a Russian family. His father was an engineer who was fond of jazz in his spare time, his mother worked as a Russian language teacher. Both of Neil's grandfathers were military men, serving in the Great Patriotic War, and his grandmother's paternal brothers were white officers.

While still at school, Ushakov began working part-time during the summer holidays: he worked on a collective farm, children's seminars, and later was a loader at construction sites and warehouses. In 1992, Ushakov traded at the Riga market in Rumbula.

After graduating from school, Ushakov entered the University of Latvia, where he studied economics at the Faculty of Economics and Management; at the same time, he entered the EuroFaculty program, where, in addition to his studies, he was engaged in research activities as an assistant. Having received a special scholarship from the Eurofaculty, Ushakov studied in Denmark for several years. In 1999, he received a bachelor's degree in analytical economics from the University of Latvia, and in 2002, according to the Eurofaculty program, Ushakov received a master's degree in economics from the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Southern Denmark (Syddansk Universitet) with a specialty in European integration issues.

In the summer of 1998, returning from Denmark to Latvia for the first time, Ushakov, following an advertisement, got a job in the Baltic bureau of the NTV television company, where he became a producer. In 1999, he went to work as a correspondent for the news service of the LTV2 television channel, and in the same year he underwent the procedure for obtaining Latvian citizenship.

In 2000, Ushakov took up editorial work, becoming editor of the news and politics department of the Respublika newspaper, and in 2001-2002 he held the same position in the Telegraph newspaper. He was also published in the magazine "Kommersant Baltic".

At the same time, Ushakov continued to work on television, from 2001 to 2004 he was the host of the TV program “Topic of the Week” on TV5, as well as co-producer, editor and presenter of the program “Russian Question” - the first large-scale television debate in Latvia in Russian. In 2004, Ušakov became editor of the news service of the First Baltic Channel, hosted the Latvian Time program, and in January 2005, on the same TV channel, he received the position of editor of evening news for Estonia and Lithuania. In addition, at the end of his journalistic career, Ushakov headed the Latvian bureau of ITAR-TASS. Ushakov was a member of the board of the international public organization "Baltic Forum", which organized conferences on issues of politics and economics of the Baltic states. While working in this organization, he met the leader of the Latvian “People's Accord Party” (PNS) Janis Urbanovich.

In 2004, the Union of Journalists of Latvia and the University of Latvia awarded Ushakov the Cicero Prize for his contribution to Latvian journalism.

In August 2005, Ushakov decided to leave journalism for politics and, at the invitation of Urbanovich, joined the Latvian "Party of People's Harmony" (PNS), and in October of the same year he was unanimously elected chairman of the political association "Center of Harmony", which included the PNS, the party "New Center", Daugavpils City Party and Socialist Party of Latvia. In November 2007, he was elected chairman of the board of the Harmony Center for two years. In the elections to the Seimas of Latvia in 2006, the Harmony Center received 14.4 percent of the votes, and Ushakov became a member of parliament. He joined the commissions on foreign and European affairs; from March to June 2009, Ushakov was the head of the parliamentary group on cooperation with Russia.

Best of the day

In 2006, Ushakov was one of the founders of the youth movement of Russian-speaking residents of Latvia “We are on the same path!” In 2008, he was the chairman of the 9maya.lv movement, which prepared a festive demonstration in honor of Victory Day. Some sources in Latvia wrote that the Russian political strategist Gleb Pavlovsky helped create Ushakov’s political image as a “unifier of Latvian Russians.”

In June 2009, the Harmony Center won the elections to the Riga City Council, receiving 34 percent of the vote, taking 26 seats in the Duma out of 60 and, thanks to a coalition with the Latvian First Party/Latvian Way party of Ivars Godmanis and Ainars Slesers, was able nominate your candidate for chairman of the Riga City Council. In July 2009, Ushakov was chosen for this post, having given up his seat in the Seimas of the Republic. Thus, Ushakov became one of the youngest mayors of Riga at the age of 33, as well as the first Russian mayor of Riga after Latvia left the USSR. Ushakov also took the post of chairman of the financial and administrative committee of the Riga City Council.

Ushakov's predecessor, Janis Birks, a representative of the national conservative movement "Fatherland and Freedom" / DNNL, did not attend Ushakov's inauguration ceremony: the honorary silver chain of the mayor was presented to Ushakov by the chairman of the Riga Election Commission, Juris Kokins.

On January 5, 2010, in the Riga City Duma, the opposition voted for the resignation of Ushakov in connection with his activities as mayor and “inappropriate behavior.” The reason was that the mayor of the city, at a meeting of the Duma on December 17, 2009, commented on the behavior of opposition deputies with obscene words. However, the ruling majority refused to dismiss Ushakov.

In the Russian press, Nil Ushakov was sometimes called the head of the party representing the interests of the Russian-speaking population, but the politician himself has repeatedly emphasized that the goal of his movement is to create a political force in which Russian-speaking residents of Latvia and Latvians would act on equal rights. He advocated assigning the status of the official language of a national minority to the Russian language: in particular, to allow the entry of a name in Russian into a passport and the provision of information in it by local government bodies. However, Ushakov emphasized that Russian should not become the state language, while he referred to the experience of Belarus, where assigning the status of state language to the Russian language led to a reduction in the scope of application of the Belarusian language.

Ushakov did not call the inclusion of Latvia in the USSR in 1940 an occupation, but admitted that power was then replaced by undemocratic and violent actions. Also, after taking office as mayor, he, despite election promises, announced the closure of 16 Riga schools, 11 of which were Russian-language. He explained this decision by a reduction in government subsidies for education and the resulting “hole” in the city budget due to a reduction in funding for public transport by the central government of Latvia.

The mayor of Riga Ushakov, as the main measure to combat the crisis, advocated the development of the tourism industry in the city, the expansion of the port of Riga and an increase in transit through the territory of Latvia. To do this, he considered it necessary to improve political and economic relations with the Russian Federation. He also agreed with the need to rename the Riga street named after Dzhokhar Dudayev, however, after his election to the post of mayor of Riga, he stated that there should be no rush to rename this street.

Ushakov divorced his ex-wife Marina in the spring of 2009; they had no children. In the summer of 2009, the press wrote that Ushakov lived with his girlfriend, a student at the University of Latvia Elena Sukhareva, who was 13 years younger than him.

Ushakov speaks Russian, Latvian and English, and also knows Danish, Swedish and German. In high school, he took up boxing, enjoys running and cycling, and was injured several times when falling from a bicycle.