• Citizenship Law amendments could be adopted by 18 November 2012 

Telegraf interviews Ingmars Caklais, the chairperson of the Saiema's sub-Committee on citizenship about the draft amendments to the citizenship legislation. According to Mr.Caklais, citizenship legislation in Latvia has not changed during the last 15 years, while the reality changed significantly, because many Latvian citizens emigrated, thus, in order for Latvia not to lose its citizens, the amendments envisage dual citizenship. The amendments also envisage granting Latvian citizenship to those former citizens, who during the Second World war fled Latvia or were deported, remained abroad and did not apply for Latvian citizenship by the previous deadline (1995). Amendments also allow that in order to register Latvian citizenship of an infant child born to Latvian non-citizens, a request of only one parent is necessary (at the moment, a request by both parents is required). The draft amendments will be reviwed by the Legal Affairs Committee and the Parliament could adopt the amendments by 18 November 2012.

• Justice Minister Janis Bordans considers introduction of tougher fines for insufficient usage of the state language
• Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis: restitution of Russian properties would not envisage compensations from the state budget  

The new Justice Minister Janis Bordans considers introduction of tougher fines for insufficient usage of the state language. 598 administrative fines for the lack of knowledge of the state language were issued during the first half of 2012. Janis Bordans (radical nationalist union “All for Latvia - For Fatherland and Freedom / Latvian National Independence Movement”) was confirmed by the Parliament to the post of the Minister of Justice on 5 July 2012, following the resignation of Gaidis Berzins over the dispute on the restitution of Jewish properties. Chas, Vesti Segodnya 

The Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis in an interview stated that if the Russian community of Latvia is planning to return its pre-war properties, such restitution would not envisage compensations from the state budget. According to the Prime Minister, negotiations over the restitution of pre-war Jewish properties are still taking place. Chas

• Rabbi Menahems Barkans: “do not think about how to make life hard for the others, but think about how to make life better for all ethnicities which live in Latvia”
• NGO Russian Community of Latvia decided to list properties which belonged to various Russian minority organisations before the WWII  

Latvijas Avize interviews Riga Rabbi Menahems Barkans, who is also the head of the Jewish NGO “Samir” and the Riga Ghetto Museum. Mr.Barkans points out at the obstacle, which prevented the restitution of many Jewish properties: out of 93,000 Jews of the pre-war Latvia, only 185 remained alive in Latvia by 1944, most perished in Holocaust, while others were in exile in the Eastern parts of the USSR (Mr.Barkans himself was born in Samarkand). The interests of the present occupants of the properties (private persons, schools, hospitals) should be guaranteed by signing special contracts. The whole concept approach should be changed: “do not think about how to make life hard for the others, but think about how to make life better for all ethnicities which live in Latvia.” Mr.Barkans also believes that dual citizenship should be granted to all descendants of the citizens of the pre-war Latvia: grandchildren of those Jews, who escaped from Holocaust, grandchildren of those SS officers, who escaped to Germany and later to America, grandchildren of those who were deported to Russia and who are now Russian citizens. All those people could be a great asset to Latvia and make significant contribution; if those people do not speak the state language, the state should provide language training, similarly to opportunities offered in Israel. Also, some national body should be established in order to consolidate young citizens and non-citizens of Latvia.  

NGO “Russian Community of Latvia” decided to compile a list of properties which belonged to various Russian minority organisations before the WWII and were not returned to the minority during the restitution process. During the inter-war years, there were tens of Russian minority organisations in Latvia, although the issue of property restitution was never fully researched. Board member of the NGO “Russian Community of Latvia” Igors Vatolins stated that one of the options is that the community will not request restitution of those properties, which are adequately used and were the state or private owners made large investments; instead, currently abandoned properties could be returned. Vesti Segodya

• Sociologist Aigars Freimanis: inter-ethnic relations in Latvia is a success story

• Political activist Andrejs Tolmacovs: granting citizenship to non-citizens of Latvia would end the monopoly of the Concord Centre

Diena interviewed the head of the market and opinion research agency "Latvijas Fakti" (Latvian Facts), sociologist Aigars Freimanis. Mr.Freimanis believes that various communities of Latvia have in a natural way developed a rational model of co-existence, which is very successful. Mr.Freimanis points out that fortunately, there were never any significant inter-ethnic conflicts in Latvia and comparing to many other countries, inter-ethnic relations in Latvia is a success story. Regarding the referendum on the status of Russian as a state language Mr.Freimanis believes that the politicians of the Concord Centre have paradoxically filled that referendum with irrelevant content, which motivated many voters to support the initiative and revealed contradictions between the politicians, not between the communities. Mr.Freimanis also believes that while the current threshold of 10,000 signatures required for the initiation of referendums may be too low, the recently adopted increase to 150,000 signatures is definitely a restriction on democracy. (01.08.2012)

Coordinator of the movement “For Equal Rights”, political activist Andrejs Tolmacovs has stated that granting citizenship to non-citizens of Latvia would end the division of political parties into “ethnically Latvian” and “ethnically Russian” parties. The right-left divisions would remain, while the positions of the moderates would be strengthened, because the politicians would have to take into consideration the interests of all the people of Latvia. At the moment, Russian voters have no choice but to vote for the “Concord Centre”, because all other parties are even worse; for example, many voters are afraid that if the “Unity” comes to power in Riga City Council, Russian schools may be liquidated. If all the people have voting rights, this “monopoly on Russian votes” of the “Concord Centre” would end, because the voters would have greater choice. Diena, Telegraf

• The Union of Greens and Farmers gathered support of 34 MPs in order to initiate referendum on amendments to referendum legislation
• US State Department report on religious freedom cites expressions of Anti-Semitism in Latvia 

The Union of Greens and Farmers gathered the support of 34 MPs in order to initiate referendum on recently adopted referendum legislation amendments. Concord Centre MPs supported the initiative. As reported, the amendments maintain the existing two stage procedure on initiation of referendum until 2015, increasing to 50,000 the number of signatures to be collected at the initiators’ own expense (five-fold increase from the currently required 10,000 signatures); starting with 2015, a single-stage signature collection procedure, requiring for 150,000 signatures to be collected at the initiators’ own expense (15-fold increase from the currently required 10,000 signatures). Now, according to legislation currently in force, the President of the Republic of Latvia has to suspend the amendments, while the Central Election Commission has to start collecting signatures of 1/10 of the voters in order to hold a referendum about the amendments. NRA, Vesti Segodnya 

U.S. Department of State issued its annual report on international religious freedom for 2011. Country report on Latvia recognises that Latvian legislation protects the right to the freedom of religion and in general, the government respects religious freedom. However, the report also points out that some sections of society hold Anti-Semitic beliefs and cites cases of desecration of Jewish cemeteries and the desecration of the grave of the saviour of Jews Zanis/Janis Lipke. Chas