• Vesti Segodnya reports about a scandal around possible usage in Riga schools of books issued in Russia
• Saeima supported in the final reading ban of usage of the USSR and Nazi symbolic at the public events
• Representatives of the Congress of Non-Citizens met with three members of the European Parliament

Vesti Segodnya reports about a scandal around possible usage of books in Riga schools issued in Russia. The deputy of the Riga City Council Janis Martins Skuja found that one of the Russian language schools uses a book on political science issued in Russia and complained about it to the Security Police and the Ministry of Education and Science. Mr Skuja claimed that the book is biased and asked to check whether the schools really use such books. The director of the school where the book was found in an interview to the newspaper explained that the book was never used in the study process and it was stored in her personal library.

Yesterday, the Saeima supported in the final reading the amendments to the Law "On the Security of Public Entertainment and Festive Events” forbidding usage of the USSR and Nazi symbolic. The amendments ban usage of Soviet and Nazi flags, emblems, and anthems, Nazi swastika, signs of the Waffen SS legion and Soviet symbols including the hammer and sickle together with five-pointed star. Usage of these symbols will not be prohibited if the aim of the usage is not connected with glorification of totalitarian regimes or justification of crimes committed by these regimes. Latvijas Avize notes that the MPs excluded from the amendments usage of uniforms explaining it by the fact that there were too many kinds of uniforms.

Vesti Segodnya reports that representatives of the Congress of Non-Citizens met with three members of the European Parliament including MEP from Latvia Tatjana Zdanoka informing them about the problem of large scale non-citizenship in Latvia and establishment of the Parliament of Unrepresented.

 

• Vesti Segodnya: 67-year-old woman, descendant of Latvian citizens cannot receive permanent residence permit in Latvia
• Latvijas Avize interviews two Russian entrepreneurs who moved for residence to Latvia

 Vesti Segodnya reports about a case of a 67-year-old woman, descendant of Latvian citizens, who returned to Latvia for residence from Ukraine, but cannot receive permanent residence permit. According to her story, her parents were old-believers and citizens of Latvia but she moved to Ukraine during Soviet era. In 2008, she returned to Latvia where her daughter (also a citizen of Latvia) resides and received temporary residence permit. After five years she applied for permanent residence permit, however, the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA) refused to grant the permit arguing that the woman is not able to pass the state language test and ordered her to leave the country. Despite the fact, that the woman provided three medical references which certify that her state of health does not allow her to take the full language test, the OCMA officials did not change the decision. But on 13 June, the OCMA suspended its decision in order to collect more information about the case.

Latvijas Avize interviews two Russian entrepreneurs who moved for residence to Latvia. The entrepreneurs received the residence permits in Latvia because they bought an expensive housing and established some businesses in Riga. The entrepreneurs explain the reasons why they choose Latvia by the fact the it is a member of the European Union, it is possible to communicate in Russian here, the distance between Riga and Moscow is relatively small, and also because both of them like the way of living in this country. According to the data of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, 6,249 foreigners received temporary residence permits in Latvia from 2010 up to this day.

• Media expert Sergejs Kruks: non-citizens passively defend their rights because even during the Soviet era the right to vote was a very formal right
• Mayor of Riga Nils Usakovs does not have specific opinion about the Congress of Non-citizens

 Vesti Segodnya interviews media expert Sergejs Kruks. Mr Kruks believes that Latvian residents – both ethnic Latvians and Russian speakers are socially very passive because they do not have an experience from the past how to collectively defend their rights. Thus, for instance, non-citizens passively defend their rights because even during the Soviet era the right to vote was a very formal right. According to Sergejs Kruks, establishment of the Congress of Non-citizens is a logical extension of the referendum on the status of Russian language in Latvia and both the Congress and the referendum represent a reaction of the Russophone part of the society to the increasingly radical nationalistic rhetoric of the governing parties.

In an interview with Latvijas Avize, commenting the establishment of the Congress of Non-citizens the Mayor of Riga Nils Usakovs stated that he does not have specific opinion about this initiative yet. Mr Usakovs believes that the Congress future activities and aims are unclear yet and therefore it is important firstly to understand how it will develop. Regarding co-operation of the Concord Centre with other parties in the Parliament, Mr Usakovs believes that it should be built on constructive dialogue which would concentrate more on solution of social problems and exclude sensitive issues concerning history and others.

• Minister of Education and Science Vjaceslavs Dombrovskis: there are no plans to transfer all state funded kindergartens or schools to Latvian language only
• Demographer Ilmars Mezs: there will be about 100,000 immigrants in 20 years
• Discussion on denying the occupation of Latvia organised by the FHRUL

Vesti Segodnya interviews the Minister of Education and Science Vjaceslavs Dombrovskis (Reform Party). The newspaper highlights the fact that Mr Dombrovskis is an ethnic Russian minister in the Latvian government. According to the Minister, there are no plans to transfer all state funded kindergartens or schools to instruction in Latvian language only, because tax payers should have a choice in which language their children should study. The minister also believes that every language should be learned gradually because if a child or a student from the Russian speaking environment is directly placed into the Latvian speaking environment it may cause problems with acquiring the study material. Mr Dombrovskis also relates his own experience in studying in Latvian in higher education establishments

Demographer Ilmars Mezs believes that in 20 years there will be around 100,000 immigrants living in Latvia. According to Mr Mezs, even if considerable number of Latvians who emigrated return back to Latvia it will not save the country from the shortage of labour force and attracting of immigrants.  Mr Mezs believes that the majority of immigrants will be young people. Vesti Segodnya

Yesterday, on the official Occupation Day (17 June 1940) political party For Human Rights in United Latvia (FHRUL) organised a discussion on whether Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1939-1940.  The majority of speakers denied the fact of occupation believing that the Soviet Union had saved Latvia from becoming part of Germany. Yesterday the MP Nikolajs Kabanovs (Concord Centre) launched his book “Secrets of Soviet Latvia” which according to the author tells about the “golden years” of the Latvian Socialistic Soviet Republic in 1960s-80s. The MP Janina Kurstite (Unity) called the launching of such a book on the Occupation Day the humiliation for Latvian state. Diena, Neatkariga

• Parliament of Unrepresented held its first session

Vesti Segodnya reports about the first session of the Parliament of Unrepresented held on 15 June. Members of the Parliament set its main goal – to restore the non-citizens their rights of which they were deprived. The Parliament decided to form seven committees – committee on counting of damage caused to non-citizens due to deprived civil rights; committee on granting non-citizens voting rights in local elections; committee against linguistic discrimination; committee on establishing a museum of achievements of Soviet Latvia; committee of foreign affairs; and committee of ethics. The Parliament also planned to prepare appeals to the President of Latvia, the Saeima, the government and local governments.