EU Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs is urging Latvians not to fear Russian energy developments such as Nord Stream, which he supports.

RIGA — The European Union energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs, a Latvian, said Tuesday that his native country needs to stop scapegoating Russia for all its problems.

“Too often we see the hand of Moscow in places where it isn’t,” Piebalgs said at a press conference in Riga.

Piebalgs, who worked close with Russia while working as an EU commissioner, said that after five years on the job he did not come across anything that would lead him to believe that Moscow has plotted a grand scheme against the Latvian state.

The tough advice comes at a time when relations between Latvia and Russia have undergone a noticeable thaw. The resoluteness with which the two sides met to solve the long truck lines at the border is the most recent example of improved cooperation between the countries.

No less interesting is that Piebalgs’ words coincide with an ongoing debate about to what extent Latvia, which sorely needs investments, should attract capital from the eastern neighbor. Some influential politicians, such as Riga Deputy Mayor Ainārs Šlesers, are gung-ho to attract Russian business to Latvia.

Piebalgs calls for a pragmatic approach to the eastern neighbor.

“We need to build relations with Russia on a pragmatic basis, and not to be afraid of her,” the commissioner said.

Piebalgs, who is a candidate to become the EU’s next development minister, also said that Latvia has a good reputation in Europe and that the problem is that Latvians too often denigrate themselves.

His observations come days after a Latvian Institute director Ojars Kalnins, in an interview with BNS, assessed Latvia’s as “Europe’s economic problem child” in 2009 and admitted that the country’s image was damaged.

Meanwhile a Western diplomat was quoted by the Financial Times last week as suggesting that Latvia is lacks both leadership and guidance.

“Lithuania has its big brother relationship with Poland. Estonia has the same with Finland. Latvia is more rudderless,” the FT quoted the anonymous diplomat as saying.