In August 2023, media and Telegram channels reported that the candidate for the post of head of the Latvian government, Evika Silina, had participated in the filming of porn films before joining the civil service. We have verified the accuracy of such publications.

14 August Prime Minister of Latvia Krisjanis Karins announcedthat he is resigning. Two days later, the New Unity party, which has the largest faction in the Latvian parliament, put forward for the post of future head of government, Minister of Welfare Eviku Silin. On August 24, the country's president Edgar Rinkevich instructed her to form a new cabinet of ministers.

Even before the official approval of Silini’s candidacy, August 21, Tsargrad TV channel published in Telegram a note about politics. In it, the future Prime Minister of Latvia is called “if I may say so, a woman” who “dreamed of becoming a porn actress, went through castings and, by the sweat of her brow, literally on her knees, begged to be taken into an ‘adult movie’.” It is clarified that Silinya acted in “obscene films” under the pseudonym Evita and “was not successful.” At the time of writing this analysis, the Tsargrad post received 33,000 views.

Among other media outlets that reported on the politician’s career in the porn industry are Russian EADaily, Pravda.ru And "Khakassia Inform" Telegram posts on this topic (warning: some of them contain pornographic content) were posted by a publicist Armen Gasparyan (83,000 views), channels «BelVPO"(222,000), "Urgent and accurate"(29,000), Diana Spletni Live ✌🏻 (16,000) "Superstitious democracy" (15,000), "This is different" (15,000), "Alexey Stefanov"(15,000), WebM⚡️2.0 (14,000), etc. Similar publications appeared in Facebook, social networks X (formerly Twitter) and LiveJournal.

In most publications containing at least some details about the failed porn career of the Latvian politician, it is specified that Silinya allegedly participated in the casting of the French director Pierre Woodman in 2015. Some authors specify that the casting took place in Moscow. Pravda.ru presents a generally similar version of events, but claims that the incident took place six years earlier.

Attached to a number of publications on Telegram and social networks is a video edited from a fragment interview, which Evika Silina gave to the Latvian Delfi TV on August 18, and excerpts of a pornographic video of unknown origin. Some Internet users limited themselves to distributing screenshots from this video, which, apparently, were intended to emphasize the external similarity between the politician and the actress.

“Verified” analyzed the portrait, allegedly of young Silini, using the service PimEyes — it allows you to find photographs of the person depicted in the picture available on the Internet. The search results predictably included numerous porn sites, as well as databases of actors and actresses participating in the filming of such content. In one of them, Internet Adult Films Database (IAFD), we found the girl from the video - reported, that she worked under the pseudonyms Evita, April, Jessica H., Jessica and Sylwia, and Latvia is indicated as her place of birth.

This is where any similarities with the version presented in the media and Telegram channels end. The compilers of the IAFD database are aware of 14 videos in which the actress starred - at least this does not fully correspond to the statement about a completely failed career. The site also states that Evita first appeared in porn in 2008, the last time in 2014, and her filmography includes a video from the Woodman Casting series - according to IAFD, it was filmed in 2011.

There was indeed a video on Woodman's website published in 2011, but the subtitle in the video itself says that it was filmed in July 2009 in Moscow. In the description, Evita is presented as a “girl from Latvia”; at the very beginning of the video she says that she is 21 years old. A translator from English into Latvian helps the porn actress communicate with Woodman.

Let's turn to Silini's biography. She was born in 1975 - thus, in 2009, when the actress under the pseudonym Evita starred in a porn video in Moscow, the politician was 34 years old. From official biography The website of the Latvian government shows that by that time Silinya had been a practicing lawyer for more than ten years, and before that she had worked as a legal consultant for several years. At the same time, the politician, in addition to her native Latvian, is fluent in Russian and English - it is unclear why she (if she really took part in porn casting) needed the help of a translator.

Although the wording, which is not the clearest for a resume, about being in private law practice from the end of 2003 to the spring of 2012, may provoke speculation that Silinya is hiding a failed career in porn, in reality such a conclusion is unfounded. In the same official biography of the candidate for Prime Minister of Latvia, it is said that the politician is the mother of three children. Her eldest daughter, Evelina, was born in November 2003, about this testify Silini's Facebook posts, where she posted photos from the girl's birthday celebration. The middle son, Matis, was born in 2007 - Silinya in October 2022 on the same social network congratulated the football team where her child plays, with a victory in the Latvian youth football championship of this year of birth. Silini’s youngest son also plays football, and Christers’s mother also celebrates his successes with posts on Facebook - in September 2019 she was happy the victory of his school at the tournament in Marupe, Latvia. That publication says that the boy played in the U10 team (all participants are no older than ten years old). So just in 2009, when the actress under the pseudonym Evita participated in a porn casting, Silinya either just gave birth to her third child or was pregnant with him.

“Verified” also compared the faces of the girl from the 2009 video with photographs of the Latvian politician. For this we used the service FaceShape. After conducting an analysis using artificial intelligence algorithms, FaceShape estimated the similarity between the porn actress Evita and Evika Silini at 7.89% in the case of modern portrait the latter and 10.03% in the case of the earliest (January 2012) from the photographs we found, published on her Facebook page. Moreover, if you upload two photographs of Silini into the service, taken more than ten years apart, the result will be much higher - 90.98%.

Comparison of a portrait of actress Evita (left) and a contemporary photograph of Evika Silini (right). Source: FaceShape

Comparison of a portrait of actress Evita (left) and a photograph of Evika Silini from 2012 (right). Source: FaceShape

Comparison of two portraits of Evika Silini, contemporary (left) and 2012 (right). Source: FaceShape

The spread of allegations about the porn career of the future Prime Minister of Latvia (or at least its active phase) began on August 18, when corresponding statements appeared in the NRA tabloid (on Latvian And Russian languages), in Reddit and in the comments on the portal Pietiek - according to our colleagues from the Latvian publication Delfi, it has a controversial reputation, since it regularly publishes materials that have signs of “black” PR companies. The next day a post on this topic posted in her Telegram channel, Latvian journalist Evgenija Shafranek (3500 views). These examples only mention Silini's possible collaboration with Woodman. More detailed reports soon appeared - for example, in tweet publicist Mikhail Shakhnazarov contains a viral screenshot and there are no reservations that it may depict another woman.

Thus, there is no evidence that in 2009 Evika Silinya participated in porn casting in Moscow under the pseudonym Evita. At that time, the future politician was either preparing for the birth of her third child, or had recently given birth to one. Such statements are refuted by other evidence. A comparison of photographs of a candidate for the position of Prime Minister of Latvia and a porn actress proves that these are two different women.

September 4 it became knownthat the State Security Service (SSS) of Latvia will consider the statement of deputies from the New Unity party, which Silina represents, about “possible illegal interference in internal political processes” carried out through slander against the politician. Among the episodes to be studied by the State Security Service, publications about the porn career of the future prime minister are also mentioned.

“Verified” thanks the journalists of the Russian-language version of the portal Delfi.lv for help in preparing this analysis.

Cover photo: Valsts kanceleja / Flickr