Kompromat.lv is an independent Latvian investigative media outlet active since 2002. Founded by investigative journalist Leonīds Jākobsons, it focuses on corruption, organized crime, illicit finance, foreign influence, hybrid threats, sanctions-related risks and national security.
For more than two decades, Kompromat.lv has investigated matters of public interest involving public officials, political and business interests, financial structures, law-enforcement institutions and foreign influence in Latvia.
Its work has been cited by Latvian and international media and examined in European anti-corruption research. Latvian and international press-freedom organizations have also monitored both the criminal proceedings against its founder and the attack against him.
Mission
Kompromat.lv investigates matters of public interest involving corruption, abuse of public office, illicit financial and corporate schemes, organized crime, foreign political influence, Russian influence networks, hybrid threats, sanctions-related risks and national-security vulnerabilities.
The outlet relies on documentary evidence, official and corporate registers, court records, state and municipal documents, regulatory information, archived media materials, open-source intelligence (OSINT) and cross-verification of information obtained from sources.
Verified facts, information provided by sources, allegations and analytical conclusions are clearly distinguished from one another.
Professional Recognition
In 2009, Leonīds Jākobsons received a diploma in the Press Freedom Award category of the Latvian Union of Journalists’ “Gada balva Žurnālistikā 2008” competition, recognizing his significant contribution to promoting press freedom in 2008.
The official list of award recipients identifies Leonīds Jākobsons with Kompromat.lv.
This professional recognition predates the criminal proceedings, the physical attack and the subsequent attention of international press-freedom organizations to his work.
Independent Media Recognition
Kompromat.lv’s work has been documented by Latvian and international media organizations independent of the outlet itself.
In April 2012, Latvian magazine Ir wrote that information published by Jākobsons had helped uncover crimes.
In 2013, Freedom House described Kompromat.lv as an online media outlet covering organized crime and government corruption.
In 2014, The Guardian described Kompromat.lv as an independent news website and cited Jākobsons in its reporting on Russian political influence and security risks in the Baltic states.
Together, these references provide an independent record of Kompromat.lv’s longstanding role in Latvia’s investigative and public-interest media environment.
European Anti-Corruption Research
Kompromat.lv was examined as a separate case in ANTICORRP — Anti-Corruption Policies Revisited, a European research project on corruption and the media.
The Latvia case study included Kompromat.lv in a systematic content analysis and examined how Latvian newspapers used information originating from the portal.
The researchers identified 216 references to Kompromat.lv in the LETA archive. In the newspaper sample, 33% of references to Kompromat.lv were prompted by content published by the portal itself, including scoops and interviews. Issues raised in Kompromat.lv reporting concerning then-Riga Mayor Nils Ušakovs and his political party were subsequently covered by Diena and Latvijas Avīze, while several newspapers cited Kompromat.lv when reporting on lesser-known figures connected with criminal circles and investigative institutions.
The study also found that investigative journalists used documents leaked to or collected by Kompromat.lv to inform their own work.
Russian Influence, Propaganda and Hybrid Threats
Russian political influence and security risks have been a sustained area of Kompromat.lv's work for more than a decade.
In 2013, The Christian Science Monitor examined Jākobsons's prosecution after he published correspondence involving Riga Mayor Nils Ušakovs, including communications with a Russian Embassy diplomat who later became the subject of public allegations related to espionage. The newspaper described Jākobsons as a muckraking journalist and placed the case in the context of legitimate journalistic whistle-blowing and press freedom.
The following year, The Guardian cited Jākobsons in its wider examination of Russian influence and hybrid-security risks in the Baltic region.
From 2016 through 2024, the Russian Service of Voice of America repeatedly sought Jākobsons's analysis on issues including Russia's annexation of Crimea, propaganda, hybrid threats to the Baltic states, Russian intelligence activity, Kremlin-linked media, sanctions and Latvia's information security. In different reports, VOA identified him as a Kompromat.lv journalist or editor and as a member of Latvian journalists' professional organizations.
In December 2018, Jākobsons participated as Editor-in-Chief of Kompromat.lv in the VI Free Russia Forum panel in Vilnius titled “Technologies of the Kremlin's Hybrid Aggression in Europe.” The discussion covered Russian interference in European elections, relations with NATO, destabilization and other instruments of hybrid influence.
This long-running area of work now extends to sanctions, influence networks, political financing, aviation, critical infrastructure and other national-security vulnerabilities.
Criminal Proceedings and Full Acquittal
In 2011, criminal proceedings were initiated against Jākobsons over the publication of leaked electronic correspondence involving then-Riga Mayor Nils Ušakovs. According to the subsequent legal account published by COBALT, the correspondence contained facts indicating that the official may have acted unlawfully.
In December 2011, police searched Jākobsons’s home, seized computers and other data-storage devices, and detained him for 48 hours.
The Latvian Journalists Association — A style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" HREF="https://latvijaszurnalisti.lv/lza-par-zurnalista-l-jakobsona-arestesanu/">Latvijas Žurnālistu asociācija (LŽA) appealed to the Ombudsman and the Prosecutor’s Office, asking them to assess whether the journalist’s detention, isolation from society and seizure of information carriers were proportionate in the circumstances.
The Association also raised concerns about the protection of journalistic sources, noting that law-enforcement authorities had gained access to information concerning sources unrelated to the criminal proceedings in question.
According to LŽA, the information available to the Association indicated that Jākobsons had obtained the correspondence lawfully and had used it in the course of his professional journalistic work. The criminal proceedings continued for more than a decade.
In 2023, the court fully acquitted Leonīds Jākobsons.
Following the acquittal, he applied for compensation for losses and non-material harm suffered during the criminal proceedings. In 2024, the Latvian Ministry of Justice awarded compensation, including in connection with restrictions on his personal liberty and freedom of expression.
The 2012 Attack and National and International Response
On 29 March 2012, Kompromat.lv journalist Leonīds Jākobsons was shot in the stairwell of his apartment building in Riga.
The Latvian Journalists Association, of which Jākobsons was a member, strongly condemned the attack. The Association regarded his professional activity as the most likely reason for the attack and stressed that professional retaliation against a journalist threatens freedom of expression and democracy. LŽA urged law-enforcement authorities to give priority to investigating the possible connection with his journalistic work.
Then-Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis also responded publicly, stating that “an attack on a journalist is an attack on freedom of expression.” He called on law-enforcement authorities to investigate the crime with the utmost thoroughness and determine whether the attack was connected with Jākobsons’s professional activity. (NRA)
The Latvian State Police treated Jākobsons’s professional activity as one of the principal lines of investigation.
The head of Latvia’s Constitution Protection Bureau (Satversmes aizsardzības birojs, SAB), Jānis Kažociņš, also publicly commented on the attack. Speaking on Latvian Television’s Panorāma, he stated that both Leonīds Jākobsons and the work of Kompromat.lv were known to SAB.
Kažociņš stressed that if Jākobsons had been shot because of his work as a journalist, the case would be particularly serious because press freedom is one of the most important freedoms. He also said that law-enforcement authorities and everyone able to assist should do everything possible to establish the reasons for the attack and identify those responsible. (TVNET)
The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that police were considering journalism as a possible motive and called for those responsible to be brought to justice.
Reporters Without Borders described Jākobsons as an investigative journalist and characterized the incident as a targeted attack, linking it to the highly sensitive subjects of his investigative reporting. RSF also described Kompromat.lv as a well-known and widely read website extensively covering corruption, organized crime, drug trafficking and other criminal activity.
The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović condemned the attack and noted that Kompromat was known for investigative reporting on sensitive issues.
In May 2012, Latvian Interior Minister Rihards Kozlovskis informed the OSCE that, because the crime could threaten freedom of expression, the investigation would be closely supervised by the Prosecutor General’s Office.
The OSCE continued to follow the case. On 8 June 2015, the Representative on Freedom of the Media contacted Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs seeking updated information on the investigation, three years after the attack.
Kompromat.lv does not claim that the perpetrators, organizers or specific motive behind the attack were established by a court.
Professional, Legal and International Support
The Latvian Journalists Association publicly intervened on issues concerning Jākobsons’s professional rights, protection of journalistic sources and press freedom both after his detention in 2011 and after the attack in 2012.
Media Defence provided legal support during the criminal proceedings and described Jākobsons as a Latvian investigative journalist.
Freedom House, CPJ, RSF and the OSCE documented different aspects of cases involving Jākobsons and Kompromat.lv, placing them within the broader debate about investigative journalism, public-interest disclosure, protection of journalistic sources, freedom of expression and journalist safety.
Methodology and Editorial Standards
Kompromat.lv’s investigations are based primarily on:
- official company, ownership and beneficial-ownership records;
- court files and judicial decisions;
- state, municipal and regulatory documents;
- law-enforcement and supervisory records;
- sanctions databases and international corporate registries;
- archived media materials and historical sources;
- open-source intelligence methods (OSINT);
- information from sources, including confidential sources, subjected to cross-verification.
Where information originates from a source, Kompromat.lv distinguishes information provided by that source from independently verified facts. Where a claim has not been independently established as fact, it is presented as a claim or allegation.
Documentary evidence and the public-interest relevance of information are central principles of the editorial process.
Current Focus
Kompromat.lv currently focuses particularly on corruption and political influence, illicit financial schemes and complex corporate structures, Russian and other foreign influence networks, sanctions evasion, aviation and critical infrastructure, hybrid threats, national-security vulnerabilities and institutional accountability.
These areas are also developed through Frontier Review, an information and analytical project examining hybrid threats and security risks affecting Latvia and NATO’s eastern flank.
Selected Sources
• Latvijas Žurnālistu savienība — “Gada balva Žurnālistikā 2008”
• Ir — “Atriebība?”
• The Christian Science Monitor — “An echo of Soviet-era censorship and meddling in Latvia?”
• The Guardian — “Baltic states wary as Russia takes more strident tone with neighbours”
• ANTICORRP — Latvia case study on corruption and the media
• Freedom House — Freedom of the Press 2013: Latvia
• Latvijas Žurnālistu asociācija — “LŽA par žurnālista L. Jākobsona arestēšanu”
• Latvijas Žurnālistu asociācija — “Uzbrukts LŽA biedram Leonīdam Jākobsonam”
• Neatkarīgā Rīta Avīze — “Premjers: uzbrukums žurnālistam ir uzbrukums vārda brīvībai”
• TVNET — “SAB: žurnālista sašaušana profesijas dēļ – tas ir nopietni”
• Committee to Protect Journalists — “Latvian journalist assaulted in Riga”
• Reporters Without Borders — “Investigative journalist badly injured in targeted attack”
• Reporters Without Borders — “Website editor arrested after publishing emails linking mayor to spying and corruption”
• OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media — statement on the attack against Leonīds Jākobsons
• OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media — 2015 report documenting continued monitoring of the investigation
• Media Defence — “Without MLDI, I would have applied for political asylum”
• Voice of America — “Crimea and the Baltic states”
• Free Russia Forum — VI Forum programme: “Technologies of the Kremlin's Hybrid Aggression in Europe”
• TV3 Latvija — “Tieslietu ministrija piešķir kompensāciju Leonīdam Jākobsonam”
• Bonum Publicum Media — “Frontier Review”