In the shadow of Soviet power, the independence of a law-governed state also began with office keys and personnel files. On 26 September 1990, the Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia adopted the law “On Prosecutorial Supervision in the Republic of Latvia”; it entered into force immediately, and on the same day Jānis Skrastiņš was appointed prosecutor general. He was entrusted with creating the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Latvia—an institution independent of the USSR prosecutor’s office, giving the new state its own backbone in criminal justice.

This took place during the transition after the declaration of 4 May 1990, when the Soviet prosecutor’s office was still subordinated to the USSR prosecutor general and could obstruct the restoration of independence. Sources describe the creation of Latvia’s own prosecutor’s office as one of the central tasks in building a national judicial system.