Madara Puke, a representative of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, said that Riga intends to expel 800 Russian citizens from the country within 30 days, as they have not formalised their right to stay in Latvia.
“At the moment 800 people have not formalised their right to stay in Latvia. They have not applied for either a permanent residence permit or a temporary residence permit. <…> We have passed the information about these persons to the State Border Guard Service for further verification. In the coming weeks it will become clear whether these people are still in Latvia. If they are – they will be issued departure orders with a period of 30 days,” Madara Puke said on TV3.
According to the Latvian official, Russian citizens who failed the Latvian language examinations had the opportunity to apply for a temporary residence permit for a period of 2 years. However, after the specified period of time, the Russians will be tested for knowledge of Latvian again under the threat of expulsion from the country.
We shall remind you that earlier Latvian Justice Minister Inese Libinja-Egnere mentioned that citizens of the Russian Federation who come to vote at the Russian embassy on the occasion of the presidential election will not be held criminally liable.