• Ombudsman Juris Jansons will present the Annual Report of the Ombudsman’s Office 2013 in Saeima
• 375 persons received Latvian citizenship through naturalisation process during first five months of 2014

Latvijas Avize reports that the Ombudsman Juris Jansons will present the Annual Report of the Ombudsman’s Office 2013 in Saeima this week. According to the newspaper, in 2013, the Ombudsman paid attention to free-of-charge education for children and availability of curriculum; to the problems in health care for children; to deficiencies in state funded social care centre; to rights of prisoners; etc. The newspaper highlights the monitoring of bilingual education as one of the most significant tasks done by the Ombudsman in 2013. As reported, following the results of the monitoring, the Ombudsman concluded that education in minority schools should be transferred into Latvian language. The monitoring received critical remarks from experts, some politicians and NGOs.

According to Vesti Segodnya, only 375 persons received Latvian citizenship through naturalisation process during first five months of 2014 and most likely, there will be less than 1,000 naturalised citizens in 2014. Comparing to 2013, there were 1,732 naturalised citizens. One of the leaders of the political party Union of Russians in Latvia Jakovs Pliners says that such data indicate that the naturalisation process has almost completely stopped. At the same time, the number of non-citizens in Latvia decreases for about 14,000 persons every year. The main reasons are death of non-citizens and acceptance of citizenship of other countries.

• Diena interviews head of the Saeima’s Society Consolidation Committee Ilmars Latkovskis
• Nationalists’ union again elaborated new proposals to the Immigration Law

Diena interviews head of the Saeima’s Society Consolidation Committee Ilmars Latkovskis. Mr Latkovskis believes that Russian speaking residents in Latvia is not homogenous group and, therefore, there is a need for a comprehensive study in order to understand their perceptions. Regarding coordination of projects aimed at society integration, Mr Latkovskis says that the Ministry of Culture should overtake the leading position because culture is the main component the integration process should be based on. Mr Latkovskis also believes that one of the potential unifying platforms for the society could be European values.   

Neatkariga reports that the nationalists’ union All for Latvia/FF-LNIM again elaborated new proposals to the Immigration Law restricting granting residence permits to non-EU residents. As reported, recently, the Saeima supported in the final reading the amendments raising minimal cost of a real estate for non-EU residents in order to be granted residence permit in Latvia. The new proposals stipulate granting the Cabinet of Ministers rights to suspend granting of residence permits to citizens of certain countries if there are threats to state security. Mainly the nationalists want to restrict granting residence permits to Russia’s citizens.

• Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma: results of a study about the mood of Russian speaking residents in Latvia will be publicly available

In a reply letter to the Saeima’s faction of the Concord Centre, the Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma stated that results of a study about the mood of Russian speaking residents in Latvia ordered by the government will be publicly available. At the same time, the Prime Minister said that detailed information about the study is not public because a decision on it was made at a closed session of the Cabinet of Ministers and has status “for service purposes.” Mrs Straujuma also said that one of the government’s priorities is to strengthen sense of belonging to Latvia and promote society consolidation and use of Latvian language. As reported, the government ordered the study about the mood of Russian speaking residents in Latvia, but all the detailed information about is kept in secret.   Vesti Segodnya, Latvijas Avize

• Council on Electronic Mass Media fined the First Baltic Channel for biased information about events in Ukraine
• Luftwaffe Latvian veterans appealed to the Parliament

The Council on Electronic Mass Media fined the First Baltic Channel (1BC) with EUR 3,600 for biased information provided in the news broadcast about events in Ukraine. According to the Council, distribution of biased information about Ukraine may split the society in their attitude towards events in Ukraine. The 1BC got also fined with EUR 1,000 for failure to insure proportion of programmes broadcasted in state language (the 1BC suppose to ensure at least 21% of its broadcast content in Latvian language in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.) Latvijas Avize

Vesti Segodnya reports that the Speaker of the Saeima Solvita Aboltina and head of the Saeima’s Human Rights and Public Affairs Committee Inara Murniece received a letter from the Foundation of Aviation Veterans or Latvian veterans who during the WWII served in the Luftwaffe with their proposals to the draft law on the status of the WWII veterans and complaint about bad attitude towards them. Members of the Foundation complaint that sometimes they are called fascists, occupants, blamed for committed genocide, and other crimes. The newspaper notes that the letter includes emblem of the Luftwaffe Latvian Legion which has also swastika in it.

• Head of the Russia’s Federal Agency “Rossotrudnichestvo” Konstantin Kosachev: we are not building  a "5th column" in Latvia

Vesti Segodnya interviews the head of the Russia’s Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo) Konstantin Kosachev. According to Mr Kosachev “Rossotrudnichestvo” works on popularisation of Russian culture, education and Russian language abroad and aims to improve Russia’s image and better understanding of Russia. Mr Kosachev stressed that the Agency does not form a "5th column" in Latvia. He called to understand that Russian compatriots in Latvia are not representatives of a "5th column" but real Latvian patriots who understand that cultural and economical cooperation with Russia is in the interests of Latvia.