[3] The newspaper has been described as having close ties with oligarch Aivars Lembergs.
With the restoration of Latvian independence in 1990, the newspaper's staff ceased collaborating with the party and formed Neatkarīgā Cīņa (The Independent Struggle) with new editors, which later become the Neatkarīgā Rīta Avīze.
[citation needed] In 2014, Neatkarīgā Rīta Avīze reported an exclusive that a 13th-century toilet ditch likely used by the Albert of Riga had been found during archaeological excavations in Old Riga.
The story was picked up by many other Latvian news outlets, including the Public Broadcasting of Latvia, but later turned out to be a hoax.
[7] Aivars Lembergs gained ownership of the paper in 1999, sometimes publishing his editorials there.