In Riga attempted self-immolation in a protest against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia

Rips was the first high school student from Latvia to participate in the International Mathematical Olympiad.

In January 1969 he learnt from listening to Western radio broadcast---then illegal in the USSR---of the self-immolation of Czechoslovak student Jan Palach.

On 13 April 1969, Rips, then a graduate student at the University of Latvia, attempted self-immolation in a protest against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. After unwrapping a self-made slogan condemning the occupation of Czechoslovakia he lit a candle and set his gasoline-soaked cloths ablaze.

A group of bystanders were able to quickly put the fire out, resulting only in burns to Rips' neck and hands. Though injured, he was first taken to the local KGB office and interrogated. The secret service wanted to make sure he was not a member of a group of would-be self-immolators. He was then incarcerated by the Soviet government for two years.

It was only after his story spread among Western mathematical circles and a following wave of petitions by Western mathematicians that Rips was freed in 1971. The following year, under further protests by mathematicians in the U.S., he was allowed to emigrate to Israel in 1972.