• Ex-leader of the nationalists’ party Janis Straume: ethnic peace is the most important issue for Latvia

Vesti Segodnya interviews ex-leader of the nationalists’ party For Fatherland and Freedom/LNIM Janis Straume (not active politician at present). According to Mr Straume, ethnic peace is the most important issue for Latvia because if there is ethnic peace there will be economic breakthrough, stability and improvement of demographic situation.  Janis Straume believes that the results of the elections to the Riga City Council when the vast majority voted for the union of the Concord Centre and the Honour to Serve Riga showed the real integration, because ethnically mixed electorate voted for the joint list of ethnic Russians and ethnic Latvians. Mr Straume believes that the Concord Centre has chances to repeat the success in the up-coming parliamentary election and establish coalition with rationally minded ethnic Latvian politicians.

• Real estate dealers do not support cancelling of the legal provision stipulating granting of residence permits to foreign investors

According to the real estate dealers interviewed by Diena, any changes in the policy of granting residence permits to foreign investors can negatively impact not only the real estate market but also the economy of the whole country. As reported, the nationalists’ union All for Latvia!/FF-LNIM insists on cancelling the legal norm stipulating granting of residence permits to foreigners who buy expensive real estate in Latvia. The Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis also believes that it would be wrong to cancel the existing system of granting residence permits as it insures significant income to the state budget. At the same time, the Prime Minister believes that it is necessary to consider how to decrease the rate of issuing the residence permits and to facilitate the contribution of this system into the economy. Diena

30 August 2013

 

• The Ministry of Culture imposed 15% restriction on Latvian non-citizens attending integration courses funded by the EU

 

Vesti Segodnya received a complaint from a non-citizen of Latvia who was refused participation in the integration courses conducted by the Riga Latvian Society and funded by the EU. The courses envisage intensive training 3-4-5 hours daily, provide learning of Latvian language learning, the history and the Constitution of Latvia, employ modern learning methods and include specialist consultations. According to the Project Director Lauma Celma, the Riga Latvian Society developed the whole programme and successfully obtained the necessary EU funding 140,000 LVL (199,203 EUR) (the European Fund for the Integration of third-country nationals). The Riga Latvian Society also issued Latvian vocabulary with fairytales, illustrated naturalisation brochures, and brought participants to the birthplace of Karlis Ulmanis. Non-citizens participating in the programme were really motivated and the programme got appraisal by the Saeima. However, recently, the Ministry of Culture imposed a new rule, whereby non-citizens can represent no more than 15% of the participants. Lauma Celma is perplexed by the decision, as the Ministry of Culture did not discuss the measure with the Riga Latvian Society and did not try to explain or justify before imposing it. According to the Director of the Integration Department of the Ministry of Integration Anita Kleinberga, initially, the EU funds were envisioned only for third country nationals, who spent less then 5 years in Latvia and therefore the Ministry introduced the 15% restriction on non-citizens; otherwise, the European Fund for the Integration of third-country nationals could interpret participation of Latvian non-citizens as a violation and request Latvia to return the funding. Lauma Celma of the Riga Latvian Society is not convinced by the 15% arguments, because she herself studied the EU requirements; moreover, the Ministry did not object to the non-citizens participating in 2011 and also earlier this year; since then, nothing changed at the EU – the Ministry has changed its mind. Lauma Celma asks if the non-citizens who filled the two groups quickly within two days should be turned down now. Representative of Latvian Human Rights Committee Vladimirs Buzaevs highlighted that the EU does not have a consistent understanding about the problem of Latvia's non-citizens: for some purposes these people are portrayed as foreigners third country nationals, for other purposes – as stateless persons etc. The concerned non-citizen wonders if Latvia discriminates against its own non-citizens treating them worse than it treats third country nationals.

28 August 2013

 

• Conference of Russian minority organisations highlighted topical problems of the community

 

Newspapers report about the conference of the "Council of non-governmental organisations of Latvia" (SOOL) and the 6-th conference of Russia's compatriots "Native Language in Education and Culture, Equal Rights for Everyone – the Way towards Liquidation of the Democracy Deficit in Latvia", held in Riga last weekend. 212 representatives of 70 NGOs, as well as 80 guests and 12 journalists participated. SOOL coordinator Viktors Guscins welcomed activities aimed at the defence of human rights, stated his opinion that Latvian state has a negative attitude towards Russian minority, limits opportunities for the language, squeezes out ethnic Russians from the labour market and pressures the community; he called for consolidation and for the liquidation of the institute of non-citizenship. According to MEP Tatjana Zdanoka, many people in Latvia believe that any protest in Latvia is fruitless because the government could not care less about the public opinion and therefore also the Russian community is no longer united; however, she believes that some rights are still available today because of the mass-scale protests in the past: the original 1999 version of the language legislation envisioned that all public meetings (such as this conference) should be held in Latvian only, and Rusian minority schools still exist today thanks to the protests. According to the Member of the Sub-committee on Rights of Minorities of the PACE Boriss Cilevics, his colleagues at the PACE could not believe that Latvia's situation was even possible and wondered why, given the restrictions on nearly half of the population, there were no victims; apparently, Latvia's residents highly valued stability and Russian community leaders were wise. Representative of Latvian Human Rights Committee Vladimirs Buzaevs highlighted Latvia's record: 70% of all persons without citizenship within the 500-million strong European Union are the non-citizens of Latvia and the list of employment prohibitions was further enlarged in 2010 to include the municipal and port police, rubbish dump employees etc. Speaker of the unofficial Parliament of Unrepresented Valerijs Komarovs highlighted that ethnic minorities represent only 5% of the state officials, while there are 37% of ethnic minorities among the population. Participants also adopted an open letter to the Prime Minister of Latvia and the Minister of Culture, calling to restore the Salaspils memorial. Vesti Segodnya, Latvijas Avize

26 August 2013

 

• Janis Iesalnieks: after the next parliamentary elections, many ethnically Latvian parties will be competing with each other to cooperate with the Concord Centre
• Doctor of Theology Guntis Kalme: "the red-brown pest has metastases" in Latvia
• Russian opposition: the USSR has already condemned the occupation and apologised

 

Latvijas Avize interviews the senior consultant to the Nationalist Union AFL!-FFF/LNIM Janis Iesalnieks. According to Mr.Iesalnieks, the most important goal of the nationalists is to restore the belief that ethnic Latvians are able to rule the state, that the power should not be given to ethnic Russians for positive changes. Mr.Iesalnieks understands ethnic Russians, who voted for the Concord Centre as a party which defends their interests. Ethnic Latvians voted for Nils Usakovs (Concord Centre) because he has more humane communication style, while the ruling parties demonstrate certain arrogance. On some issues, especially the social issues, MPs representing the Nationalists Union and the Concord Centre voted the same. However, he believes cooperation with the Concord Centre is impossible, alleging that this is "a branch office of Russia's ruling party". His pessimistic forecast is that after the next year's parliamentary elections, many ethnically Latvian parties will be competing with each other to cooperate with the Concord Centre. When asked about the request of the U.S.A. to extradite ethnic minority Latvian citizen Deniss Calovskis suspected of cyber crimes, Mr.Iesalnieks emphasises that he supports the concept of Latvia as ethnic, not civic state and that Latvia has to defend every ethnic Latvian regardless of citizenship; however, Calovskis perhaps made a crime and moreover, Calovskis on his Facebook page indicated he supports Nils Usakovs (Concord Centre). According to Mr.Iesalnieks, there is no conflict within the Nationalist Union when the "All for Latvia!" members on 15 May pay tribute to Karlis Ulmains, who organised coup'd'etat in 1934 and ruled Latvia personally until 1940. Their members are regularly conducting patriotic youth summer camps, which combine lectures and sports.

 

Latvijas Avize publishes article by Doctor of Theology Guntis Kalme about the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact signed in 1939. Mr. Kalme writes that the "consequences of the war caused by the Pact are still to be overcome" and that "the red-brown pest has metastases". Namely, Mr.Kalve points at "ethnic Russian community".

 

Latvia's Radio journalist interviewed representatives of Russian opposition parties about the recognition of occupation of Latvia. Representative of the staff of the main opposition candidate to the position of the Mayor of Moscow Aleksey Navalny stated that this issue is not important in the context of these elections. Representative of the party "Yabloko" stated that he is informed about the human rights violations in Latvia, but emphasised that "Yabloko" is not going to exploit the issue for xenophobic purposes. The head of the "Left Front" highlighted that in 1990 the USSR has already condemned the occupation and apologised; he does not understand why Russia should constantly apologise. Vesti Segodnya