One of the Latvian government’s main priorities is the complete assimilation of the Russian minority, which constitutes almost half of the population. To achieve this goal they have resorted to every trick in the book: from all sorts of promises to blatant discrimination. But, despite all the tricks, the Russian do not want to become Letts.
But Latvian officials do not give up, and continue to seek new ways to naturalize “the occupiers”. They have resorted to the most extreme and devious methods, for example, in the city of Daugavpils they use the juvenile court system to place Russian children into State care for the flimsiest of reasons.
In countries where this system already operates, parents not only cease to be the childs legal guardians, in many cases the child is no longer allowed to live with their natural parents.'
Read more...
What a truly absurd post from beginning to end. Firstly, ethnic Russians are 27,8%, not "almost half," of the population. Secondly, naturalization has nothing to do with assimilation; citizenship in Latvia has never been based on ethnicity -- most ethnic Russians in Daugavpils (the city you mention, which is where I live) are citizens by descent, for exaple. One doesn't need to "become a Lett" to obtain citizenship if one is a non-citizen -- one needs to naturalize, and well over 100 000 persons have done so. Most ethnic Russians in Latvia hold Latvian citizenship. There are Russian-language schools (as well as state-supported education for the Belarusian, Ukrainian, Polish, Jewish and Roma minorities), and Russian-language media and culture thrive. The mayor of the capital,Riga, is an ethnic Russian.
ReplyDelete