expected to give a press conference
I don't think the press conference in Riga is meant to calm Russians. Tomorrow there will be at least a couple of conferences in other airports as well (probably a few new routes to be announced?)
Concerning Russians. To my knowledge, the once-frozen negotiations between FR and the almost forgotten airport near Saimaa lake by the Russian border (EFLP on the EU side, should we call it "Petersburg-West"?) did make some progress recently, so who knows, it might be wise to have a better press in Russia.