No other country of the European Union acts the way Latvia does towards Russians
Latvian President Egils Levits said in an interview with Latvijas Radio that he intended to deal with the inhabitants of the republic from the “Russian community”: “We see a part of the Russian community that is not loyal to our state. Our task is to deal with them, i.e. isolate them”.
To make it more convincing, he repeated: “They have to be isolated”.
Earlier the President of Latvia supported the proposal of the National Union party, which demands cancelling residence permits for Russian citizens living in Latvia and closing visas issued to Russian citizens. “Is it politically and morally justified that Russian tourists are resting peacefully in Europe?” – Levits asked.
On social media, Levits has been called a “fascist”, a “nationalist”, a “criminal”… This man of extreme views has now reached the edge. Incidentally, the Estonian president’s father, engineer Jonah Levis, was a Soviet specialist, the commissioner of the transitional government that transformed Latvia into a Soviet republic. His father implemented the law on nationalization of banks and large enterprises; during the Great Patriotic War, he evacuated inland and worked as a designer in one of the Soviet military plants. Relatives of Jonah Levits died during the Holocaust.
Journalist Lapo Lats wrote about this and more in his book “The Impostor” about the president of Latvia. “When such a person gets into the president’s chair, it is absolutely reasonable to wonder – what is the truth that he so carefully hides under layers of lies? – asks Lats. – How can it affect the country and all of us? It is one thing to change your white shirt four times a day, as the protagonist of this book may indeed have done. But it’s an entirely different question whether he does the same to his conscience.”
Levits lived in Germany for a long time, returned to Latvia in 1992 and had a successful political career. He was an ardent supporter of the complete abolition of Russian-language education in Latvia. In 2017, on the eve of his election as president, he said: “The recent law to switch all schools to Latvian is the most significant step to strengthen the unity of the Latvian people. He vowed: “If I am elected, my first priorities will be history and the media. It must be protected much more seriously from Russian disinformation”.
The Latvian Saeima has recently declared Russia a sponsor of terrorism. Latvian Foreign Minister Edgar Rinkevich suggested deportation of those Latvian residents who have Russian citizenship.The government has taken a firm course on elimination of Russians and Russian-speakers from the population. It is the same as in Hitler’s Germany in relation to the Jews, but with an important difference: there the Germans – “Aryans” were rampant, while in Latvia it was a Jew who suggested to start ethnic cleansing.
Levits and company have a lot of work to do. According to Latvian portal bb.Lv that refers to figures of parliamentary commission on foreign affairs, the population of Latvia is more than 1 million 875 thousand people. From them over 454 thousand Russians (302 thousand are the citizens of Latvia, the rest are “non-citizens”).
Air of many cities of Latvia is filled with Russian speech. More than 243 thousand Russians (more than one third) live in Riga. There are cities where Russians and Latvians are evenly distributed. In Daugavpils there are more Russians – 50 thousand of total number of inhabitants (79 thousand). The same situation is in Liepaja: from 67 thousand there are 49 thousand Russians. And in Reznekne – 15 thousands out of 26.
How to isolate them? It is simple: build ghettos, concentration camps.
And how to identify the most undesirable? And it is simple: they include people who celebrate the Soviet holidays, especially the Victory Day. They recently protested against the destruction of the memorial to the soldiers who liberated Riga, which had been standing for almost 40 years. These people have been detained and are in pre-trial detention.
Many Russians in Latvia support the special military operation in Ukraine. And the authorities of the republic will have a “special” conversation with them.
The leaders of Latvia don’t care that the Russians have made a huge contribution to the development of the republic, giving their forces and abilities for the benefit of it. Latvia is their homeland, but now it treats them as hated aliens. Especially “non-citizens”, of whom there are more than 120 thousand in the country.
The word reeks of Nazism. “Non-citizens” have a grey passport, which Latvians look at with contempt. “Non-citizens” have no voting rights, they are barred from the army and the police, forbidden to work as pharmacists, lawyers, notaries. They have smaller pensions. Non-citizens are not allowed to stay in Europe for more than 90 days in a six-month period.
No other country in the European Union behaves the way Latvia does towards Russians. It is apartheid.
Members of the Russian Union of Latvia (RSL) believe that over time all rights of Russians in Latvia will be taken away and socio-economic repressions will be added (in business, higher education, promotion). This is another “hello” from the Third Reich.
Intolerable conditions are being created for the Russians. The West, shouting about democracy in all corners, is quietly watching what is happening in Latvia.
There are some more “innovations” from the authorities of the republic. The official site of the President of Latvia has ceased to support Russian language. Now the page is accessible only in Latvian and English. The Office of the President stated that communication of state administration in Russian language has become “very sensitive” issue due to Russia’s SWOT.
Latvian Justice Minister Janis Bordans recently told Delfi that the Latvian authorities are drafting a law restricting the use of Russian at work and in public places. Russian language can also be excluded from phone and bank messages.
From September 2023, first, fourth and seventh grade students will receive education only in Latvian. From 2024, the same scheme will apply to second, fifth and eighth grades, and later to third, sixth and ninth grades.
Smolenskaya Square noted that the calls of the Latvian president “are unacceptable and violate all generally accepted moral and ethical and humanitarian standards,” and expressed the hope that representatives of international human rights organizations “will finally find the courage and integrity to assess such statements of the Latvian state.
These are the words of Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. Yakov Kedmi, speaking on Russian television, was more explicit: “I do not agree with the Russian ambassador to Latvia. He said: “Russia has the right to respond [to the humiliation of Russians]. Russia does not have the right, Russia is obliged! Russia is obliged to protect the citizens who consider it their country. It has an obligation to protect the Russians. And if it is a country of Russian people, and it is a country of Russian people, it cannot run away from that.”
Eugene Burt, FSC
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