• Politician Edgars Jaunups: it is inconsiderate and short-sighted for political parties to refuse categorically cooperation with the Concord Centre

One of the leaders of an association For Development of Latvia Edgars Jaunups (one of the ex-leaders of the political party Unity) believes it is very inconsiderate and short-sighted for political parties to refuse categorically cooperation with the Concord Centre which represents the majority of Russian speaking residents. Mr Jaunups believes that exclusion of the Concord Centre from the coalition does not correspond to the interests of the society in general. At the same time, Mr Jaunups considers that the Concord Centre needs to improve its programme and define position about very important issues. Diena

• Congress of Non-citizens: Latvia should take major steps to solve the non-citizenship problem before taking the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in July 2015

 

According to Elizabete Krivcova, one of the leaders of the Congress of Non-citizens, Latvia should take major steps to solve the non-citizenship problem before taking the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in July 2015. The Congress opened its English-language version of its webpage www.noncitizens.eu , informing about the problem and asking to sign the petition to overhaul citizenship laws to restore full rights. According to Elizabete Krivcova, the Congress welcomes all efforts to solve the problem and is open to dialogue on all issues except the fundamental European values – human rights and minority protection. Regarding the initiative to establish a museum of the institute of non-citizenship, Elizabete Krivcova believes that the work should begin with development of the content, which would complement the museum of occupation, and this can be displayed on the internet and as travelling exhibition. The Congress of non-citizens is unofficial association which claims to represent the interests of Latvia's non-citizens, whose voting rights were revoked since 1991. Vesti-Segodnya

• Straume: Lend a hand to the Concord Centre!

 

Diena interviewed one of the former leaders of the radical nationalist party "For Fatherland and Freedom / Latvian National Independence Movement" Janis Straume. Mr.Straume believes the results of municipal elections in Riga are very good for the integration of society: the common list of "Honour to Serve Riga" and "Concord Centre" included both ethnic Latvian and ethnic Russian candidates and they got elected as part of the same list. This is despite the fact that previously in other election lists, candidates of the "wrong" ethnic identity would often be stricken-off by the voters, as Latvian election system envisages voting for candidate lists and allows the voters to strike-off undesirable candidates. Mr.Straume believes that the Concord Centre (a party mainly supported by ethnic minorities) has been deceived several times and now ethnic Latvians should "lend a hand" to the Concord Centre. He highlights that parties are not homogenous and include both modern, pragmatic people on one hand, as well as "people who bring automatic rifles to the kindergartens and fight at the Freedom Monument" on the other. Mr.Straume believes that Latvian security services were interested to distract attention of the society away from economic problems and therefore allowed Vladimirs Lindermans to organise referendum on the status of Russian language in February 2012. Diena (05.08.2013), Latvijas Avize, NRA, Vesti-Segodnya

• Delegation of the Congress of non-citizens hold meetings in Brussels

 

On 30 July 2013 a delegation of the Congress of non-citizens visited Brussels, holding meetings with representatives of the European Commission, civil society and mass media. During a meeting, the Head of Unit Fundamental rights and rights of the child Ms Salla Saastamoinen compared Latvia's Congress of non-citizens to civil society activities in Finland and Germany. Representatives of the Congress believe the experience of involvement of non-citizens could be beneficial for Latvian government, which strives to encourage the return of those citizens of Latvia, who emigrated during the financial crisis. Vesti-Segodnya

• Janis Iesalnieks uses ethnic slur arguing for extradition of ethnic minority cyber crime suspect

 

Newspapers report about unexpected twist of controversy regarding the request of the U.S.A. to extradite ethnic minority Latvian citizen Deniss Calovskis suspected of cyber crimes. As the extradition was delayed, Janis Iesalnieks, board member of the radical nationalist union "All for Latvia! - For Fatherland and Freedom / Latvian National Independence Movement" (AFL!-FFF/LNIM), a senior consultant to the AFL!-FFF/LNIM has commented in his Twitter account: "Why do we need this criminal "urlens"? Getting rid of those is completely in accordance with the positions of the National union". NRA commented that so far, none of Latvia's government parties was so open about sorting out the citizens by ethnicity. "Urla" is an outdated slang term, which in 1930s-1950s was used to describe criminals, and which is currently applied by some radical nationalists to describe ethnic Russians. Latvijas Avize, NRA, Vesti-Segodnya