| Submit your comments on this article | ||||
| Europe | ||||
| 'Everything is worse than usual.' Latvia is getting rid of Russian elderly people and children | ||||
| 2023-10-14 | ||||
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Viktor Lavrinenko [REGNUM] Latvia has canceled the identity cards of more than 3 thousand elderly Russian citizens living on its territory - Russian citizens. Thus, they are forced to leave the Republic of Latvia. So far, these people, brought to the brink of death, are surviving due to the support of well-wishers who organized food collection for them.
"WE MUST LEAVE" By now, a specific stratum has formed in Latvia: citizens of Russia, who, as a rule, are already at a very advanced age. These are natives and long-term residents of Latvia, to whom it refused its citizenship in 1991 and in return they took Russian citizenship. But last year, the previous composition of the Latvian parliament, before the end of its term of office, approved by a majority vote a law on depriving Russian citizens permanently residing in Latvia of residence permits. These people were given a condition : if they want to renew their residence permits, they must pass an exam in the Latvian language by September 1, 2023.
At some point, the Latvian authorities realized that if they simultaneously deported all 20 thousand Russian citizens living in the state, this could leave a stain on the image of Latvia as a “advanced European democracy.” And in September, the Sejm supported the amendments to the immigration law prepared by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which provide for the extension of language exams for Russian citizens by two years - for this period they will receive a temporary residence permit. However, the amendments apply only to those who have already “taken the initiative to take the exam” but have failed to complete it. The threat of deportation loomed both over those who did not sign up to take the exam, knowing in advance that they would not pass it, and over those who were unable to do so due to old age's ailments. In early October, the Latvian Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA) sent letters to 3,255 Russian citizens living in Latvia saying that they “may have to leave the country.” These individuals had their identity cards revoked, and were deprived of their pensions and free medical care. According to the head of the OCMA , Maira Rose , in relation to 73 of these persons, it turned out that they were abroad, and about 200 more did not have a declared place of residence - and, perhaps, they themselves moved to Russia. But the rest may be forcibly evicted. Rose reminded that the two-year extension of the deadline for passing the state language exam and obtaining a permanent residence permit is only valid for those Russian citizens who have already tried to pass the exam. “Those who do nothing should leave,” said Mayra Rose. THERE WILL BE MORE VICTIMS Daugavpils resident Olga Petkevich, a journalist and social activist, who of her own free will took an almost unbearable load onto her fragile shoulders by organizing the collection of money and food for such elderly people who are facing deportation, talks about what the cancellation of the identity cards of elderly Russians has led to in practice. “Leonid from Daugavpils will die in about a month - because, having canceled his residence permit in Latvia, the state denied him access to expensive and rare medicines on which his life depends. He devoted his life to the development of this state, his children live here, who also work for this country. But the state decided to “thank” him in such an inhumane way,” says Petkevich about one of the victims of the Latvian state. Here's another example. “68-year-old Tatyana Matveeva, having learned from me that a canceled residence permit means no pension or social benefits for an indefinite period, said that she would freeze the sausage I brought her today: you never know, there will be nothing to eat at all... She was deprived of all rights and everyone income, were actually doomed to starvation and painful death. She sits and cries: “Why do I need all this? I worked and paid taxes! I just wanted to live peacefully in my old age...” I don’t have answers to these questions ,” says Olga Petkevich. Tatyana did not pass the first exam, did not sign up for the second on time, and then fell and broke her hip. According to the majority of Seimas deputies, this helpless, lame pensioner is the main threat to the security of Latvia. It is quite possible that the number of candidates for deportation will soon increase. The coalition party “New Unity” reported that they had developed legislative amendments that would allow depriving Latvian citizenship of those who were convicted of “betrayal”. The criteria for this “betrayal” have not been defined, and there is no doubt that this concept will be interpreted extremely broadly. As Andrejs Judins , chairman of the parliamentary commission on legal issues, explains , every ex-USSR citizen has the opportunity to become a citizen of Russia, that is, old people expelled from Latvia will not become people without a homeland. Yudins, who has been playing the role of a “good Russian” for several years now, is known for putting forward the most Russophobic initiatives related to an attack on the rights of Russians in Latvia. GHETTO FOR RUSSIANS Last year, Latvia passed a law according to which Russian children will be deprived of even the last remnants of teaching in their native language. Currently, in those schools in Latvia where children from families of national minorities study, mass testing of teachers is taking place: teachers are checked for perfect knowledge of the Latvian language. They try not to advertise this fact, but information about what is happening within the school walls still leaks to social networks and the press. “In one of the Riga schools there is another state language test. Again they want to subject the same teachers to humiliating execution. But this time everything is worse than usual. If a teacher does not pass the test, he must be suspended for three months without pay. If during this time the teacher does not take courses at his own expense or does not pass a repeat exam, he faces being deprived of his “crust.” This automatically entails the loss of any job. In order not to take risks, teachers en masse write resignation letters before the exam , ” reports Riga blogger Alexey Gulenko . There are other messages of this kind. “ Eighteen resignation letters. In the same school ,” says Latvian blogger Degi Karaev . He published an anonymous letter from one of the school teachers: “Today I am with a Russian child, who has not yet spoken his native language, because he has problems, developmental features, I am obliged to speak and teach him in Latvian! Literally under the doors, the headmistress eavesdrops and sarcastically reprimands. <…> Directors and managers bypass the laws of common sense and revel in the opportunity to offend and humiliate.” Even the editor-in-chief of the state Latvian agency Rus was outraged by the situation. LSM Ekaterina Safronova. “Basically, we either want to create a ghetto, or we just want to show that you guys don’t belong here. Where is the place? I don’t know,” Safronova said publicly. The famous Latvian journalist Inga Springe agreed with her words . “And she's right. Even if the nationalists don’t like it,” the journalist wrote in the comments under the video with Safronova. But both Safronova and Springe immediately began to be accused of spreading “Kremlin propaganda” and working for Moscow. Safronova’s courage may be explained by the fact that she has nothing much to lose - the authorities have made a conceptual decision to liquidate all state media broadcasting in Russian in two years. However, the Russian population of Latvia is in no hurry to sympathize with the journalists of these media. The memories are still fresh of how, fearing to lose access to state feeding, they deliberately ignored, for example, the problem of eliminating Russian-language education in the country. “I have repeated and will repeat: a country where there is no Russian education does not need Russian-language media. More precisely, such Russian-language media,” says Alexey Gulenko. In his opinion, further restrictions should be expected on social networks, where information can still be obtained. “The country has been moving in this direction for years. It’s just that now what has been going on for years is being resolved in a couple of days,” notes the Riga blogger. | ||||
| Posted by:badanov |
| #5 If we weren't talking about Latvians, I'd suggest accepting proficiency in one of the great languages of trade and diplomacy in lieu of Latvian. English. French. Maybe Mandarin, which Russians should be learning anyway. And of course Yiddish. |
| Posted by: Betty Grusoger5057 2023-10-14 22:32 |
| #4 Qué? Valid identify card, what is that ? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2023-10-14 07:53 |
| #3 I'm sure the East Prussian and Silesian Germans feel their pain. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2023-10-14 07:38 |
| #2 It's like the Baltics want Russia to reconquer them. |
| Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2023-10-14 02:27 |
| #1 Novavax ships millions of updated COVID-19 vaccine doses after FDA clearance |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2023-10-14 01:54 |