• The Security Police does not rule out the possibility that in the future some Latvian Muslims may join Islamic terrorists
• Discussion about Old Believers’ community in Latvia conducted in Riga
• Jakovs Pliners (Russian Union of Latvia) claims that government for desire to liquidate Russian language schools

Vesti Segodnya reports that the Security Police does not rule out the possibility that in the future some Latvian Muslims may join terrorists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. At the same time, the SP does not have information about Latvian residents who may go to Iraq and Syria with an aim to take part in the military activities and those who may join terrorists.

Vesti Segodnya prints an article on discussion about Old Believers’ community in Latvia conducted in Riga. Participants mentioned several factors which endanger the Old Believers’ community: attempts to liquidate education in Russian language as their religion is closely tied to Russian; decline of the number of young people and residents of Latgale (eastern Latvian region) as significant part of the Old Believers traditionally resided there; lack of financial support from government as compared with other traditional confessions; and aggressive political discourse of the politicians of the nationalists’ union towards ethnic minorities.

One of the leaders of the political party Russian Union of Latvia Jakovs Pliners prints an article in Vesti Segodnya criticizing government’s plans to transfer almost all content of education in minority schools into Latvian language. J.Pliners believes that such reform is aimed at liquidation of Russian language schools in Latvia and humiliation of Russian speaking residents.

• Media report about an attack on a Ukrainian girl by two other girls because of wrong pronunciation in Russian
• Latvijas Avize report about the conclusions of a research “Analyses of Integration Process of Latvian Non-citizens: Study, Forecasts, Solutions, and Dialogue”
• Neatkariga reports about a study “Russia’s Public Diplomacy in Latvia: Media and Non-governmental Sector”

Newspapers report about a case involving a girl, a Ukrainian asylum seeker, allegedly attacked because of her wrong pronunciation in Russian.  The police have challenged the initial media story by calling the incident an ordinary conflict without ethnic undertones. The incident happened during a drawing class at a youth centre in the city of Jelgava, when the Ukrainian girl had used Ukrainian words for stationary instead of Russian ones which had led to ridiculing and aggressive conduct by other girls. Shortly after the story about the incident appeared in the media, the police received a complaint from the father of the Ukrainian girl about the conflict which had occurred on 16 September. The police have opened an administrative case about the incident, but after taking witness statements and assessing other facts deny the fact that the girl was attacked because she is Ukrainian. Latvijas Avize, Diena

Latvijas Avize reports about the conclusions of a research project “Analyses of the Integration Process of Latvian Non-citizens: Study, Forecasts, Solutions, and Dialogue” conducted by the Baltic Institute of Social Sciences. The survey conducted as part of  research showed that, despite non-citizens claims that the status of a non-citizen is discriminatory and causes inconvenience, they were unable to provide specific examples of discrimination. At the same time, non-citizens acknowledged that the status enables them to travel to Russia without visas. According to one of the researchers Inese Supule, the differences in the rights of citizens and non-citizens mainly concern political rights and the right to occupy certain posts and professions. According to the research the dissatisfaction about the status of a non-citizen is caused by subjective feelings of discrimination based more on emotions than arguments. Such feelings are exacerbated by certain politicians to the left who try to convince that such status is humiliating, while certain politicians to the right question the loyalty of non-citizens and new naturalised citizens towards Latvia. A large number of non-citizens who took part in the survey said that they were not aware about the Non-citizens  Congress which claims to be the defender of non-citizen rights and interests. According to the research, in 20 years the number of non-citizens in Latvia will decrease from present 282, 000 to 74,000 persons.

Neatkariga reports about a study “Russia’s Public Diplomacy in Latvia: Media and Non-governmental Sector” conducted by the Eastern European Policy Research Centre. Authors of the study highlight two main instruments of Russia’s propaganda aimed at splitting  the Latvian society: dissemination of perceptions that Russian speaking residents in Latvia are discriminated of and the imposition of Russia’s interpretation of history. The authors also believe that in order to resist Russia’s propaganda, Riga should become the centre of Russian democracy where Russian democrats and liberals would create alternatives to Russia’s propaganda. The authors also propose that the transmission of Russia’s “undesirable” TV channels in Latvia be ceased.

• Research “Analyses of Integration Process of Latvian Non-citizens: Study, Forecasts, Solutions, and Dialogue”
• Head of a radio broadcasting company Ugis Polis criticizes draft amendments envisaging that a range of radio stations broadcasting in Russian language will have to broadcast in Latvian language only
• Diena prints an article about use of media in Latgale

The Baltic Institute of Social Sciences conducted a research “Analyses of Integration Process of Latvian Non-citizens: Study, Forecasts, Solutions, and Dialogue.” According to it, there are 2% of Russia’s citizens in Latvia and every year number of Russia’s citizens grows. At the same time, number of applications for naturalisation decreases. 13% of permanent Latvian residents are non-citizens. Vesti Segodnya

Head of a radio broadcasting company Ugis Polis appealed to the head of the Saeima’s Human Rights and Public Affairs Committee and the National Council on Electronic Mass Media calling to revoke the draft amendments to Law on Electronic Mass Media envisaging that a range of radio stations broadcasting in Russian language will have to broadcast in Latvian language only. The radio stations will be allowed to broadcast songs in foreign languages but all the programmes will have to be in Latvian only. Mr Polis criticizes such draft amendments and believes those are aimed at liquidation of the leading Russian language mass media in Latvia. Vesti Segodnya

Diena prints an article about use of media in Latgale (eastern Latvian region).  According to it, large part of residents living in the border area still prefers to watch Russia’s TV channels. The Ombudsman Juris Jansons believes that the problem is in the fact that Latvian TV channel are not technically available for those residents. However, interviewed residents explain their choice is based in more interesting content provided by Russia’s TV channel. The newspaper also notes that LTV7 recently introduced four new programmes in Russian language aimed at provision of information for Russian speaking residents. 

• Public opinion survey “Society Integration in Riga” presented
• Minister of Education Ina Druviete: learning subjects in Latvian language helps ethnic minorities to deepen Latvian language proficiency for the level of real bilingualism
• Advisory Committee on Ethnic Minority Education discussed education in kindergartens and results of the final examination of graduators of ethnic minority schools

Latvijas Avize reports about a public opinion survey “Society Integration in Riga” conducted by a company SKDS for the Riga City Council. The survey shows that the majority of Riga residents feel attached to Riga and Latvia and only 34% also to Europe. The newspaper notes that only 65% of Riga residents approved that they are ready to defend Latvia if its independence is endangered. 98% of the respondents believe that state symbolic should be honoured and 94% believe that it is important to know Latvian language. 47% said that they mostly use Latvian language in communication with state institutions, 11% use mostly Russian language, 15% use more often Russian than Latvian.

Commenting the planned language reform in minority schools scheduled for 2018, the Minister of Education Ina Druviete said that learning history, geography, and history of culture in native language in addition to lessons of native language and literature is adequate amount of education content for preservation of ethnic identity. The Minister believes that such proportion would help children to become absolutely bilingual preserving their own culture and to become practically proficient in Latvian language. She also believes that using Latvian language in learning other subjects helps to deepen Latvian language proficiency for the level of real bilingualism. Vesti Segodnya

Vesti Segodnya reports about the meeting of the Ministry of Education’s Advisory Committee on Ethnic Minority Education discussing education in kindergartens and results of the final examination of graduators of ethnic minority schools. According to a member of the Committee Elizabete Krivcova (representative of the Congress of Non-citizens), representatives of the Ministry agreed that education quality in Russian language kindergartens should be improved and promised to conduct a discussion about this issue in the near future. Mrs Krivcova also said that the presented data about the results of final examination show that results of state language examination has worsened as compared to previous yeas and also results of examination in biology worsened. While, results of students of ethnic minority schools in physics is higher as compared to students of Latvian language schools. Mrs Krivcova explained such results by the fact that graduators of Russian language schools pass Latvian language examination equally with students of Latvian language schools for whom it is a native language and also biology is learned in Latvia. While, physics included in the list of subjects taught in native language.

• State Language Centre forbade distribution of Rezekne municipal newspaper in Russian language in public places
• Vesti Segodnya reports that the Cabinet of Ministers adopted new Regulations on the standards of elementary education
• Russian compatriots from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia discussed how to preserve Russian schools
• Saeima plans to review a draft law on the status of WWII veterans

The State Language Centre (SLC) forbade the Rezekne City Council from distributing a municipal newspaper in Russian language in public places. The newspaper is available in two languages – Latvian and Russian. The SLC believes that the availability of the newspaper “forced” the residents to receive information in foreign language. At the same time, the municipal newspaper could still be received through post service, because private post boxes are not the public space. Vesti Segodnya

Vesti Segodnya reports that the Cabinet of Ministers adopted the new rules on the standards of elementary education (grades 1-9) in state funded schools. Among other, the Regulations envisage that the aims of the ethnic minority education are to ensure state (Latvian) language learning in order to be able to continue education in state language; promote integrated learning of education content and state language; to ensure balanced learning of all subjects related to education; to promote integration of student in the Latvian society; to support learning of ethnic minority culture. The Rules also envisage 4 patterns of education programs for ethnic minority schools and give opportunity for schools to create its own 5th pattern for deeper learning of minority culture. However, the proportion of education in minority language or bilingually and in state language should not exceed 40/60% in this pattern for grades 6-9. The patterns envisage 5 hours of Latvian language classes per week and 3 hours of native language classes per week for grades 7-9. The newspaper states that the transfer of 60% of subjects in minority secondary schools in 2004 resulted in lower quality of education and sees the new Regulations adverse action on Russian language schools in Latvia.

Vesti Segodnya reports about a conference of Russian compatriots from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia discussing education in Russian language. The participants of the conference discussed the problem of decreasing native language proportion in education and measures to be taken in order to preserve Russian schools.

The Saeima plans to review a draft law on the status of WWII veterans on 25 September. Elaboration of the draft law was initiated by the President of Latvia Andris Berzins 2,5 years ago with an aim of reconciliation of Latvian veterans who fought on the opposite sides during the WWII. The Saeima’s Society Consolidation Committee was entrusted with elaborating the draft. However, the Saeima will review an alternative draft law, which was submitted to the Saeima’s Human Rights Committee by organisations representing former Latvian Waffen SS legionnaires. According to their draft law, the status of WWII veteran could be granted only to those veterans who were Latvian citizens in 1940 and served in the regular military forces of the Soviet Union or the Nazi Germany. Thus, for instance, non-citizens and those who obtained Latvian citizenship through naturalisation could not be granted status of WWII veteran. Vesti Segodnya