The Russian president has commented on Latvia’s announced deportation of pensioners
FILE PHOTO: Workers dismantle the monument to the Liberators of Soviet Latvia and Riga from the German Fascist Invaders at Victory Park in Riga, August 24, 2022 © Sputnik
Deportations of ethnic Russians, in many cases elderly retirees, from Latvia and other Baltic states is a serious matter threatening the security of Russia, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.
Speaking at a meeting with municipal leaders in Moscow, Putin linked the actions of Baltic states with how the Ukrainian government treated Russian speakers after the US-backed coup in 2014, which triggered the Donbass conflict.
“In 2014 there was also a coup d’etat and the declaration of Russians in Ukraine as a non-titular nation. This was followed by a whole series of other decisions that nullified and actually led to what is now happening in Latvia and in other Baltic republics, when Russian people are simply dumped across the border,” Putin said.
In 2022, the Latvian parliament adopted a law that all Russian nationals must obtain a certificate proving their command of the Latvian language by September 1, 2023, or face deportation.
Latvia confirmed on Tuesday that it wanted to deport 985 Russians for either not taking or failing the language test. One of the people affected by the order is a 72-year-old Russian woman from the town of Liepaja, who could not pass the test because she has been visually impaired since childhood, according to the Russian embassy in Riga.
About 36% of Latvia’s residents consider Russian their mother tongue. Significant populations of Russian-speakers also exist in Estonia and Lithuania – former Baltic republics of the Soviet Union that declared independence in 1991 and have since joined the EU and NATO.
All three have sought to disenfranchise the ethnic Russians, demanding loyalty oaths and qualification tests. After Moscow launched its military operation in Ukraine, their governments rushed to support Kiev and banned all displays of Russian symbols as “supporting aggression.” The ban was later extended to celebrations of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in WWII.
