• Latvian Non-Citizens Congress is dismayed about the lack of official reaction to public calls for "preventive placement" of non-citizens of Latvia into "separate territories"   

Latvian Non-Citizens Congress addressed the high state officials with a letter expressing its dismay about the lack of official reaction to public calls for "preventive placement" of non-citizens of Latvia into "separate territories". Online public petition published on 14 April 2015 at www.peticijas.com called for "proactive defence", including "preventive placement" of non-citizens of Latvia and citizens of Russia with residence permits into "separate territories supervised by the Ministry of Interior and security services". The petition gathered more than 1,500 signatures. The Non-Citizens Congress highlights that "non-citizen" is a special status of Latvian subjects, introduced by Latvia, thus, the authors of the petition are calling to punish the people for the policy of Latvian state. The Congress believes that the authors of the petition are scapegoating non-citizens. The Non-Citizens Congress addressed its letter to the Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma, Minister of Interior Rihards Kozlovskis and the Minister of Defence Raimonds Vejonis. The Congress calls the Government to communicate directly with non-citizens, in order to learn their opinion and to strengthen stability and security of Latvia. Vesti Segodnya

• The Prosecutor’s Office brought charges against a man who published a petition in support of Latvia’s merger with Russia
• Political scientist Juris Rozenvalds supports establishment of a national Russian language TV channel
• Latvijas Avize prints a critical article about plans of the Rezekne City Council to grant 50 EUR to every WWII veteran

The Prosecutor’s Office brought charges against a man who published a petition on the Internet in support of Latvia’s merger with Russia. The man is charged in accordance with the Criminal Law on public calls for the destruction of the independence of the Republicof Latviaas a state, with purpose of incorporating Latviainto a unified state structure with some other state. According to the Security Police, the man is not related to the well known supporters of Russia’s policy on compatriots. Vesti Segodnya

According to a political scientist Juris Rozenvalds, public opinion surveys show that Latvian TV viewers’ audience splits on two separate groups – 80% of those who speak at home in Latvian language mostly watch only Latvian TV channels, but 85% of those residents who speak at home in Russian language watch mostly Russia’s TV channels. Mr Rozenvalds believes that it is very important to talk to those people who have been excluded from the informative space in Latvia. And the best way how to interest these people is to offer competitive TV content by establishing a national TV channel in Russian language. He also believes that potential audience of this channel should be involved in creation of the channel’s content. Latvijas Avize (20.04), Vesti Segodnya

Latvijas Avize prints a critical article about plans of the Rezekne (city in the Eastern part ofLatvia) City Council to grant benefit to 81 WWII veterans in amount50 EUR per person. According to the newspaper it is doubtful whether all the persons in the list of veterans prepared by an NGO “RRO LAKCA” are war veterans. The newspaper also doubts if the local government is allowed to grant funding for such benefits, and if yes, Latvian Waffen SS legionnaires also should be granted equal benefits. The Mayor of Rezekne Aleksandrs Bartasevics explains that the local government also in the previous years supported veterans. The list of veterans will be checked and the benefit will be transferred directly to each of them and not to the NGO, says Mr Bartasevics. He also says that there are not only war veterans in the list but also victims of Leningrad blockade, prisoners of the concentration camps, and labour veterans. 

• Aleksandrs Gaponenko: ethnic Russians in Latvia are disoriented

Vesti Segodnya interviews one of the leaders of the Non-citizens Congress Aleksandrs Gaponenko. Mr Gaponenko says that discrimination of ethnic Russians inLatvia is still a topical issue. He compares situation in Ukrainian Donbas with situation inLatvia saying that residents of Donbas stood for protection of their interests with arms, but Russian residents ofLatvia didn’t even though their situation is much worse. He also believes that ethnic Russians inLatvia are disoriented and in the Russian movement there is a large number of the Security Police’s agents. 

• Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma: there is information about possible provocations during 9 May events in Riga
• Head of the political party All for Latvia!-FF/LNIM Raivis Dzintars: the government will not support establishment of Russian language TV channel in Latvia

According to the Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma, the security bodies have information about possible provocations during 9 May events (unofficial celebration of the end of the WWI or Victory day) inRiga. The Prime Minister hopes that the security bodies will be able to prevent the provocations as well as they did on 16 March (unofficial commemoration day of Latvian Waffen SS legionnaires.)

Head of the political party All for Latvia!-FF/LNIM Raivis Dzintars in an interview with Latvijas Avize criticizes the idea to establish a Russian language national TV channel inLatvia. He believes that the better way how to counterRussia’s propaganda inLatvia is to support access to independentRussia’s mass media which are able to unmask the lies in a more successful way. Mr Dzintars also believes that the government will not support the proposal of the National Council on Electronic Mass Media to grant funding for the Russian language channel. 

• Public opinion survey: 57% of respondents believe that young people who are not proficient in Russian language are discriminated in a labour market in Latvia

According to a public opinion survey conducted by CV-Online Latvia, 57% of respondents believe that young people who are not proficient in Russian language are discriminated in a labour market in Latvia. 30% believe that hiring employees who are proficient in Latvian and Russian languages is discrimination towards those who are proficient in Latvian language only. 14% also note that they were refused in hiring because of insufficient Russian language skills. 77% of respondents believe that lack of Russian language proficiency could be compensated by high qualification or specific knowledge. 49% believe that Russian language skills are the key towards success in the labour market, but 40% are confident that there are requirements for different languages in different areas of the labour market. Vesti Segodnya