At the beginning of next month, up to 6,000 Russian citizens living in Latvia will receive a letter from the government telling them to move out of Latvia.
The reason is a law change that came into effect at the end of last year, which requires many Russian citizens living in the country with a permanent residence permit to prove their sufficient knowledge of the Latvian language by the fall.
Thousands of people have not registered for the required language tests. For them, Latvia shows the door.
– This is a very hot topic, especially now that the deadline is approaching, says the assistant professor Inta Mieriņa In ‘s video interview.
He heads the Migration Research Center at the University of Latvia and is critical of the government’s policies towards the country’s large Russian-speaking minority. According to Mieriņa, the measures do not solve security threats, but rather can increase them.
Exemption applied for by falsifying health information
More than a quarter of Latvia’s residents, or half a million people, speak Russian. There are many areas in the country where you don’t need anything other than the Russian language in everyday life.
New language proficiency requirement applies only to about 20,000 people: Russian citizens under the age of 75, who were previously stateless or changed Latvian citizenship to Russian citizenship.
The majority of them are over 50 years old and have lived in Latvia almost all their lives. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, these people chose Russian citizenship because it was simpler for them than obtaining Latvian citizenship and offered, among other things, visa-free travel and better pension benefits.
– These people have Russian citizenship for practical reasons, not because they are loyal Putinists, says Mieriņa.
At the end of last year, the government presented them with a challenge: basic Latvian language skills must be demonstrated in an exam by the fall, or they must leave the country. In recent months, many elderly Russian citizens have studied the basics of Latvia and taken the exam in order to keep their permanent residence permit valid.
About half is backpacked language test, but can renew it later in the fall. However, between 5,000 and 6,000 people have so far not signed up for the required test at all, and some have even tried to skip it by falsifying their health information.
That’s why they’re getting a written request leave the country within three months.
The government considers Russian citizens a security threat
Other recent decisions have also strained the relationship between the country’s government and the Russian-speaking minority. Less than a year ago, a huge Soviet-era monument to the Red Army was torn down in the capital, Riga. It is planned again in the country’s schools stop teaching in Russian; in the future, you can attend school in Latvia only in Latvian.
– These were important issues for Russian speakers. Now they feel that their wishes and needs are ignored, says Mieriņa.
According to the government, the language proficiency requirement is fair and reasonable. It justifies the demand by saying that Russian citizens living in the country are a security threat. Russia claims that by attacking Ukraine it is “protecting” the Russians living there.
– These people voluntarily decided to take the citizenship of a country other than Latvia. It is a sign of something, said the State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior Dimitrijs Trofimovs in an interview with the Reuters news agency in the spring.
A somewhat similar discussion is taking place also in neighboring Lithuania. There, the government said last week that it will not renew the residence permits of more than a thousand citizens of Belarus and Russia, because it considers these certain people a security threat.
Published in July last year in survey research 40 percent of Russian-speakers in Latvia said they were against and 12 percent were in favor of a Russian war of aggression. Almost half did not answer or take a position on the matter.
Those respondents who did not have Latvian citizenship were more likely to support the Russian war.
Researcher Mieriņa admits that hybrid attacks are a real threat in Latvia, and Russia is trying to influence the Russian-speaking minority with its propaganda.
However, according to him, the Latvian government’s way of reacting to the threat is wrong. The government makes him a mistake by pushing the country’s Russian-speaking and Russian citizens into a tight spot. According to the researcher, this creates a much more serious security threat.
Namely, it sends a message to the entire Russian-speaking minority that they are not welcome in Latvia.
Propaganda victory for Russia
According to Mieriņa, the language proficiency requirement and the invitation to move at the beginning of September are mostly symbolic.
Deporting people who have lived in the country for decades can be against the constitution and EU legislation, and there have already been many complaints to the courts about the law change. The Constitutional Court will issue a policy on the matter at the beginning of the year. In addition, possible deportation decisions can be appealed and a residence permit can be applied for on other grounds.
Few, if any, would probably have to actually move out of Latvia. The requirements apply to a very small part of the country’s Russian-speaking population anyway.
However, the government’s policy plunges thousands of people into uncertainty for months or even years. It is also a cold message to the wider Russian-speaking minority.
– The government shows that these people are not considered part of Latvian society. This pushes them deeper into Russia’s sphere of influence, says Mieriņa.
Russia has already received significant propaganda gains from Latvia’s language policy, says the Latvian Broadcasting Company LSM. A video of a 74-year-old disabled woman being carried up the stairs to a language test in Daugavpils, Latvia’s second largest city, has circulated widely in Russian state media and social media.
According to LSM, the opponents of the language tests agreed with the woman in advance to describe the situation.
It is relatively easy for Russian propaganda to present Latvia as a Russophobic country. published in Latvia in July survey according to both Latvian and Russian-speaking population groups, they feel that attitudes towards Russian-speakers have clearly deteriorated since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression.
“Our Russians, not Putin’s Russians”
In Latvia, the government’s policy towards Russian-speakers has been more exclusionary than integrative during the war, according to the researcher.
For example, all Russian TV channels were banned in Latvia last year, and nothing else has replaced them. According to the researcher, this has driven people to Russian propaganda, e.g. through social media, instead of the Latvian media.
According to him, Estonia has acted more constructively: replacing the banned Russian channels we produce a lot of our ownreliable news and current affairs programs in Russian.
According to Mieriņa, Latvia’s most important security guarantee is NATO membership. He has a remedy for internal security threats and hybrid influence that is not based on forcing language skills or squeezing ethnic minorities: deeper integration and better economic conditions.
– The exclusionary policy causes security threats and internal tensions. Why would people be a security threat if they were given respect and opportunities for a good life and livelihood?
– Latvia’s population groups have much more in common than differences. These are our Russians, not Putin’s Russians. We need to focus on common challenges.
Sources: Reuters, AP