The Latvian minister expressed concerns about a Russian-speaking Bolt driver from Ukraine.

The Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Baiba Braže, expressed her dissatisfaction with a Bolt taxi driver for communicating with her solely in Russian. Braže mentioned that the driver was from Ukraine. She wrote about this on the social media platform X on December 17.

According to the minister, the incident occurred on the evening of December 14, when she was traveling to the old town of Riga. Braže deemed it "absolutely unacceptable" that the driver, Alexander, did not know a single word in Latvian. She emphasized that the man also could not communicate in English, French, Ukrainian, Dutch, or German.

The press service of Bolt commented on Baiba Braže's post, stating that only drivers with a license issued by the Directorate of Road Transport have access to the platform. To obtain this license, knowledge of the state language at a level not lower than B1 is required.

Later, in correspondence with the Bolt taxi service support team, officials explained that their drivers are "independent partners."

In summary. This evening, I was contacted by a representative of @boltapp, who kindly apologized in Latvian for the customer service chatbox algorithms and informed me that the driver is from Ukraine, hence not knowing the Latvian language. I reiterated that Russian should not be the only language of communication https://t.co/rhIZxf8TOy

— Baiba Braže (@Braze_Baiba) December 18, 2024

The next day, December 18, a representative from Bolt contacted the Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs and clarified that the driver was originally from Ukraine and therefore does not know the Latvian language. At the same time, Braže stressed that Russian should not be the only means of communication.