Latvian Link
News
Picture Album

Sveiki, all!

Things got a bit hectic last weekend, apologies for the mailer hiatus! We're taking a day off to get housework done (scrape, cement...) so we'll get right to it...

In the news:

  • Analysis: Pondering NATO enlargement; thoughts after the conference in Bulgaria
  • Russia, NATO lawmakers agree to cooperation pact; closer ties means less of a perceived threat, still, the pact "noted" Russia's opposition to membership for the Baltics, in particular
  • Tanaka sends notes to Baltic states marking 10 years of independence; congratulations on progress and hopes for closer cooperation
  • Top Latvian court quashes terrorism sentences; threatening to blow up the Dom is reduced to hooliganism, sentences for illegal entry into Latvia unchanged
  • Source: Bush pushes NATO enlargement after attack; likewise, Putin rhetoric is toning down in the face of the developing freight train
  • ... "800 oppose Latvia's division into citizens and non-citizens"; ITAR-TASS reports on Rubiks rabble-rousing
  • Leading Latvian judge gunned down in Riga; proving the Taliban are not the only terrorist threat
  • Victims of the Deportation to the Riga Ghetto to Receive Memorial Site; the Germans and German state continue to demonstrate they can stay the painful path of facing up to the Nazi past; our question is, when will Russia face up to its Soviet past?
  • ... Politics: Kremlin encourages repatriation of ethnic Russians; Moscow mayor is having it both ways, visiting Latvia for closer economic cooperation, and then describing Latvia's and Estonia's policies towards Russian minorities as "outright apartheid"; meanwhile, returnees wait years for citizenship during which time, as non-citizens, they can't get any decent jobs. And Russia has the gall to complain about anyone else? More of "do as I say, not as I do."

This week's link documents efforts to clean up the legacy of Soviet (and pre-Soviet) arms-related environmental contamination in Latvia.

This week's picture is of Vecriga renovations being done this summer.

As always, AOL'ers, Remember, mailer or not, Lat Chat spontaneously appears every Sunday on AOL starting around 9:00/9:30pm Eastern time, lasting until 11:00/11:30pm. (We've been getting there about 10:00pm lately.)AOL'ers can follow this link: Town Square - Latvian chat. And thanks to you participating on the Latvian message board as well: LATVIA (both on AOL only).

Ar visu labu,

Silvija Peters

  Latvian Link

The Latvian Ministry of Defence has an excellent web site. Part of it concerns its efforts to quantify and deal with arms contamination, not only the legacy of the Soviet occupation, but from before the occupation period as well. That particular page can be found on their site at:

http://www.mod.lv/english/07vide/02piesarnojums.php

  News


Analysis: Pondering NATO enlargement
COMTEX Newswire Sunday, October 07, 2001 8:21:00 AM
By ARIEL COHEN
Copyright 2001 by United Press International

    SOFIA, Bulgaria, Oct 07, 2001 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Heads of 10 states that aspire to join NATO in November 2002 ended their summit in the Bulgarian capital amid expressions of unanimity and pledges of cooperation.
    Worries about terrorist threats and concerns about the blossoming NATO-Russian rapprochement united the aspirant countries in their desire to support the U.S.-led coalition against international terror. The last thing these countries want is the NATO enlargement process to be delayed or derailed.
    President George W. Bush calmed these fears in a message read to the conference participants by Robert A. Bradtke, deputy assistant secretary of state for European affairs. Bush reaffirmed the pledge he made in Warsaw June 15, assuring the participants that Russia has no veto over NATO enlargement.
    Bush said: "The United States shares the commitment of participants in this summit to protecting our common values against those who seek to sow fear through acts of terror... Those who carried out this attack want to impose a rigid and intolerant vision on the world... You as much as anyone in the world, have had first-hand experience with dictatorships imposed by people who believe that they have the 'one truth' for all... We will work together, we will make one another stronger, and we will win...
    "The United States supports NATO membership for all of Europe's new democracies, from the Baltic to the Black Sea, who share our values and are ready to contribute to security and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area," Bush continued. "The future of every European nation must be determined by the progress of internal reform, not the interests of outside powers."
    George Robertson, NATO secretary-general, connected the dots for the NATO candidates. Talking about the aftermath the attack on the United States, he said, "It has been a searing time of self-examination. A tragedy of this scale rips away illusions. It forces us all to look at hard truths, and demonstrate...where we stand -- and what we stand for.
    "We must trace the money and freeze it. We must deny them safe havens, anywhere in the world. And, where necessary, we must use force to prevent them from causing further loss of innocent life."
    However, two points made by Robertson raised eyebrows among the summit participants.
    First, he said that "instability and violence is the most fertile ground possible for terrorism. By contrast, there is no more hostile an environment for a terrorist than a stable prosperous country in a peaceful, secure region. "Supporting stable, multi-ethnic states is our best insurance against terrorism emerging in the first place. Afghanistan is a safe haven for terrorists precisely because it does not have a viable state structure. It is a 'black hole.' That is why NATO is engaged in South-East Europe to prevent such 'black holes' from emerging on our doorstep."
    While it is self-evident that poverty, instability and violence breed more violence, the connection is far more complicated, summit participants told United Press International. After all, the United States is the most prosperous and pluralistic country in the world, and nevertheless, it became a target for the most heinous terrorist act in history. And other prosperous and tolerant countries, not "black holes", are under terrorist siege: Spain, Great Britain, France and Israel, they argued. Participants also pointed that Tamil terrorism destroyed relatively sound Sri Lanka. Indeed, several noted that, historically, totalitarian countries experienced the least terrorist activities.
    The second controversial point Robertson made was that "it is no use having heavy metal armed forces which are structured for threats we no longer face, and which cannot contribute to the kind Allied operations the new threats will require."
    If Robertson meant obsolete Soviet arsenals prevalent in Eastern Europe, he may be correct, conference participants said. However, there was a widespread consensus among them that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks demonstrated the need for NATO's out-of-area power projection capabilities, which are definitely both high tech and "heavy metal."
    Robertson focused on internal stability of prospective members as an important component of the overall alliance security. He emphasized "...not only effective police, border guards and judiciary system, but also ensuring good relations between different ethnic groups... good relations with neighbors, and tackling such difficult issues as corruption, money laundering, and organized crime."
    And he stressed that the effort of Central and Eastern European nations to join NATO will not end in Prague in 2002, with invitations to join the alliance. Receiving such an invitation "is not like finishing a sprint. It is like earning a ticket to begin a marathon," he said.
    Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem and Slovenian President Milan Kucan raised controversy at the summit.
    Cem requested that the participants not use the term "Islamic" in relation to terrorism. He suggested that Christian bankers might have paid for the terrorist attack. Kucan called to put alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and his associates "in front of a court" and for the introduction of global governance by democratic states to fight the terrorist scourge.
    Zbigniew Brzezinski, former U.S. national security adviser in the Carter administration, delivered the keynote address at the summit and offered a comprehensive vision for NATO's future. He called for NATO members to create and embrace European Union-Russian economic cooperation and NATO-Russian security cooperation.
    "Integration into the Euro-Atlantic zone is the only geopolitical choice left to Russia," Brzezinski said. "It is surrounded by 290 million Muslims in the South, and there will be 450 million Muslims in the immediate Russian periphery by the year 2020. There are also 1.2 billion Chinese in Russia's East, with (China's) gross domestic product currently six times higher than Russia's.
    "If Russia hasn't decided whether to make a rapprochement with NATO a tactical move or a strategic choice, we need to convince it that it should be a strategic choice," Brzezinski told UPI.
    "Russians would be naive to think that NATO will destroy itself in order to let them in," he said. "But if Russia enters into strategic cooperation with NATO during the coming year, President (Vladimir) Putin and President (Leonid) Kuchma of Ukraine should be invited to address the Prague summit. The appearance of Putin in Prague will be the beginning of the road to further cooperation and integration."
    Brzezinski also suggested that in its enlargement process, "NATO should issue invitations to all seven candidates: the three Baltic states (of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia), Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania. This will be a declaration of intention to admit, but the members should ratify membership only to those who answer the NATO political and military criteria.
    "NATO should stack ratification of membership for the rest of the candidates based on their performance," Brzezinski said. "Let the NATO Council select the sequence of actual admission. Thus, there will be incentive for political and military reform. But it is time to end the uncertainty. Enlargement calls for real leadership, determination, and sense of historical dimension."
     --
    (Ariel Cohen, Ph.D., is a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.)

Russia, NATO lawmakers agree to cooperation pact
Reuters Financial Report Tuesday, October 09, 2001 11:56:00 AM
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.
By Lesley Wroughton

    OTTAWA, Oct 9 (Reuters) -- Russian and NATO politicians signed on Tuesday a framework for cooperation between the consultative NATO Parliamentary Assembly and Russia's parliament that the head of the NATO body said would help ease Russia's suspicion of the Western military alliance.
    The pact was signed by the president of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Rafael Estrella, a Spanish socialist lawmaker, and Lubov Sliska, leader of the Russian delegation to the Assembly.
    "This is a powerful sign that, especially after September 11, what unites us is far stronger than what still divides us," Estrella said in a statement.
    The move takes place against a backdrop of increasing cooperation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the West since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States..
    Russia's parliament has backed Putin's support for the U.S. attacks in Afghanistan. Putin has also made it clear that Moscow does not see NATO as a threat to Russia, and has opened the doors to becoming a security partner. But he has not said Russia would apply for NATO membership.
    Representatives from the upper and lower houses of Russia's parliament have since 1991 participated in meetings of the NATO assembly, a grouping of 300 lawmakers from the 19 NATO partners.
    Russia is one of 17 associate countries that participate in the Assembly, which meets twice a year to discuss political, technical and defense issues. Associate countries participate in debates but cannot vote.
    Cooperation between the two groups was halted in March 1999 when Russia's lower house of parliament, the Duma, suspended its ties with the assembly in protest against NATO's air campaign in Kosovo against Yugoslavia.
    But since February last year, after a settlement on Kosovo and the Russian-NATO relationship on strengthening security and stability in the Euro-Atlantic region, the parties resumed cooperation in the assembly.
    "In the agreement we are not only speaking about achievements, there are differences of course and we will be trying to leave those differences behind as we move forward," Sliska told Reuters after the signing.
    The framework lists areas of differences and cooperation between Russia and the NATO assembly. But Victor Ozerov, a senator in Russia's Federation Council and chairman of its defense committee, said there were more areas of agreement.
    "Both on paper and in life we witness more willingness to agree than to disagree," he said, adding: "The task of our state leaders including parliamentarians is to use that chance."
    Among the differences noted in the pact is Russia's opposition to NATO actions in Yugoslavia that they say violated international law and were a sign of NATO's willingness to use force unilaterally.
    The pact also notes Russia's opposition to NATO enlargement to include the three former Soviet Baltic states, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
    Areas on cooperation at the parliamentary level include international terrorism, organized crime; search and rescue; proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; and south-east Europe, particularly joint peacekeeping in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Tanaka sends notes to Baltic states marking 10 years of independence
Kyodo World Service Wednesday, October 10, 2001 4:50:00 AM
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press

    TOKYO, Oct. 10 (Kyodo) -- Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka sent messages to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on Wednesday to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Japan and the Baltic states, ministry officials said.
    In the messages to foreign ministers of the three countries, Tanaka praised their governments' continued efforts on democratization, shifting to market economies and joining international organizations, the officials said.
    She also expressed hope for further development of friendly bilateral ties through building cooperative relations in political, economic, cultural and various other fields.
    The foreign minister's messages were addressed to Estonian Foreign Minister Toomas Ilves, Latvian Foreign Minister Indulis Berzins and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis, according to the officials.
    Japan recognized Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as states in September 1991 after the three countries won independence from the Soviet Union, and established diplomatic ties with them Oct. 10 that year.

Top Latvian court quashes terrorism sentences
Reuters World Report Thursday, October 11, 2001 12:04:00 PM
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.

    RIGA, Oct 11 (Reuters) -- Latvia's Supreme Court on Thursday quashed the terrorism convictions of three Russians jailed for threatening to blow up a Riga church tower and reduced their offence to hooliganism, lawyers said.
    The court simultaneously cut jail sentences of five and 15 years imposed on the three by a lower court to one, five and six years.
    Sergei Solovey, Maksim Zhurkin and Dmitri Gafarov, members of an ultra-nationalist Russian group, were found guilty on April 30 of terrorism and illegally crossing the border with Russia.
    They were convicted of threatening to blow up the tower of Riga's 13th-century St Peter's Church on November 17 last year after barricading themselves inside.
    Defence lawyer Gijs Rusins told Reuters: "The Supreme Court has left the sentence for illegal entry unchanged but requalified terrorism into hooliganism, which has resulted in reduced sentences for all three."
    The three carried out the church action to demand the release of former KGB officer Mihail Farbtuh, 85, who is serving seven years jail for his role in deporting Latvians to Siberia in the 1940s.
    They also called for the release of four members of their group, the National Bolsheviks, who face trial on charges of crossing the border illegally.
    The threat to blow up the church tower was also a protest against Latvia's desires to join NATO.
    Solovey and Zhurkin were originally given 15-year sentences and Gafarov was sentenced to five years. The Supreme Court reduced Solovey's sentence to six years, Zhurkin's to five and Gafarov's to one.

Source: Bush pushes NATO enlargement after attack
Reuters North America Friday, October 12, 2001 11:19:00 AM
Copyright 2001 Reuters Ltd.
By Paul Taylor

    BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters) -- President Bush is more committed than ever to the enlargement of NATO following the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, a senior NATO official said Friday.
    The official was reporting on talks that NATO Secretary-General George Robertson had in Washington Wednesday with Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and U.S. senators.
    "Enlargement came up and the administration said 'make no mistake, we are all supportive. We haven't changed our mind.' ... More than ever this enlargement makes sense because it enhances our common security," the official told reporters.
    It was the clearest indication so far that the new spirit of cooperation between Russia and the West in the fight against terrorism would not prompt Bush to defer or scale down the next wave of NATO expansion, due to be launched next year.
    The official said Robertson and Bush did not discuss which specific east European countries should be invited to join when the 19-nation alliance holds its next summit in Prague in November 2002.
    But Bush had said his June speech in Warsaw, which envisaged a NATO from the Baltic to the Black Sea, remained valid.
    NATO diplomats said it looked increasingly probable that all three former Soviet Baltic republics -- Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia -- would be invited to join, along with Slovakia, Slovenia and probably Bulgaria and Romania.
    The official made clear candidates must first meet goals for military reform and civilian control over the armed forces set out in NATO's 1999 Membership Action Plan.
    OPPOSITION SOFTENED
    Russia has in the past fiercely opposed expanding NATO to include former Soviet territory but Russian President Vladimir Putin softened that stance on a landmark visit to Brussels last week.
    Putin said he might reconsider his opposition to enlargement if the alliance became more of a political than a military body, and Russia felt more involved in the process.
    The NATO official said that while Putin had made clear to Robertson Moscow would never be happy about enlargement, "we detect signs that perhaps they are coming to terms with this."
    "There is an acceptance that this is going to happen and we should make the best of this both on the Russian and the NATO side," he said.
    U.S. leaders and Robertson agreed "we have to seize this window of opportunity" for closer cooperation with Moscow on issues ranging from counterterrorism to military reform, nuclear nonproliferation and weapons of mass destruction.
    The official said the Bush administration and congressional leaders had unanimously voiced gratitude for the total support of the European allies in invoking NATO's mutual defense clause immediately after the attacks on New York and Washington.
    Although NATO was not collectively engaged in the U.S.-led military action in Afghanistan, the alliance had given crucial backing for Washington's campaign, Bush had told Robertson.
    The official said Robertson had told the U.S. administration that the allies would need convincing of the evidence before any attempt was made to extend or broaden the campaign against any other group or country.
    Powell had made clear there were no plans at this stage to broaden the targets, he said.

800 oppose Latvia's division into citizens and non-citizens
COMTEX Newswire Sunday, October 14, 2001 1:07:00 PM
(c) 2001 ITAR-TASS

    RIGA, Oct 14, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- About 800 activists of left forces gathered in downtown Riga on Sunday to mark the 10th anniversary of Latvian society's division into citizens and non- citizens.
    Back on October 15, 1991, the Latvian parliament passed a resolution that gave the citizen rights only to pre-war residents, and denied such to people, who came to reside in Latvia after July 17, 1940. One fourth of the present-day population, ethnic minorities, are non-citizens.
    Deputies from the Association for Human Rights in United Latvia spoke during the protest. They called for stopping the discrimination in education, allowing non-citizens to vote in local elections, and ratifying a convention on the protection of ethnic minorities.
    The day before the Russian Society of Latvia appealed to international organizations. The appeal says that naturalization can be applied to foreigners, but not to people who were born and lived all of their lives in Latvia.

Leading Latvian judge gunned down in Riga
AP WorldStream Tuesday, October 16, 2001 11:53:00 AM
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press

    RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- A top Latvian judge who presided over several high-profile criminal trials in this former Soviet republic was shot dead in what police said Tuesday may have been a contract killing. Nobody has been arrested.
    Janis Laukroze was shot seven times, including once in the head, outside his apartment late Monday, police chief Juris Reksna said. He was pronounced dead as ambulance teams arrived on the scene in central Riga, Latvia's capital.
    The 69-year-old chief judge on the Riga District Court was the first judge murdered in Latvia since this nation of 2.4 million people regained independence as the Soviet Union collapsed 10 years ago.
    Earlier this year, he and two other judges handed down a guilty verdict against three members of a radical communist group charged with terrorism.
    A homemade pistol, the presumed murder weapon, was found near Laukroze's body, and 10 witnesses were questioned by police. A composite drawing of a suspect was made based on those interviews, Reksna said.
    "We are investigating the possibility that this is a contract killing," the official said at a news conference. He said the murder may have been related to the judge's work but offered no details.

Victims of the Deportation to the Riga Ghetto to Receive Memorial Site
COMTEX NewswireWednesday, October 17, 2001 10:16:00 AM
Copyright (C) 2001, U.S. Newswire

    KASSEL, Germany (ots), Oct 17, 2001 (U.S. Newswire via COMTEX) -- Over 25,000 German Jews were deported to Riga in 1941/42, the majority of whom were murdered in nearby Bikernieki Forest. Sixty years later, at the initiative of the German Riga Committee, they are finally to receive a dignified burial and memorial site which is due to be opened on November 30.
    The Committee was set up in May of last year by the representatives of 13 German cities and the German War Graves Commission under the auspices of President Rau to commemorate the fate of the German Jews who fell victim to the Riga deportation. The participating cities consist of Berlin, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Hanover, Kassel, Cologne, Leipzig, Munster, Nuremberg, Osnabruck and Stuttgart. They were followed by Bocholt, Kiel, Lubeck, Vienna, Bremen and Paderborn, which joined the Committee in 2001.
    Together with its Latvian partner organisation -- the "Brothers Cemetery Committee" -- as well as the city authorities of Riga, the German War Graves Commission has created a burial and memorial site for the victims to act as a permanent reminder to the suffering they endured. In addition, historians from the "New Synagogue Berlin -- Centrum Judaicum" Foundation and the "Wannsee Conference Site", an educational institution, are currently working on a book of remembrance documenting the names of all of the victims. Their work is being supported by the historians of each member city.
    The Central Council of Jews in Germany, the city authorities of Riga and the "Riga Initiative", which has already established for quite some time in Vienna, have given their backing to the project. Funding has been secured in the form of special grants paid by the German Government and donations from the participating cities.
    The German War Graves Commission expects the official opening of the site to be attended by many of the victims' dependents and survivors of the ghettos from Germany, Austria and overseas. As well as representatives from each city and institution involved in the project, the State President of the Republic of Latvia and the President of the Austrian National Council have also declared their intention to attend. A commemorative address will be held by Dr. Fritz Behrens, Minister of the Interior for North-Rhine Westphalia.
    CONTACT: Fritz Kirchmeier of Volksbund Deutsche, 05 61-70 09-139
    Email: pressevolksbund.de
    Web site: www.volksbund.de

Propaganda Alert Buried!... Politics: Moscow encourages repatriation of ethnic Russians
COMTEX NewswireThursday, October 18, 2001 5:31:00 PM
Copyright (c) 2001 IPS-Inter Press Service. All Rights Reserved

    MOSCOW, Oct 17, 2001 (Inter Press Service via COMTEX) -- The Kremlin is encouraging the repatriation of millions of ethnic Russians who found themselves minorities in other former Soviet republics after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
    But with the ongoing U.S. air strikes against Afghanistan, some Russian officials fear that the move could spark uncontrolled migration from Central Asia.
    "The violence in Afghanistan may spark huge refugee outflows," said Andrei Nikolayev, chairperson of the security committee of the Russian State Duma, the lower chamber of parliament.
    "Up to five million Afghans may flee to Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan," he was quoted as saying by Interfax today.
    The influx could become a humanitarian disaster since many Russian-speakers may seek asylum in Russia, Nikolayev said.
    The Kremlin is "interested in the repatriation of Russians living abroad," said President Vladimir Putin.
    He also promised to defend the rights and cultural heritage of millions of Russians who suddenly found themselves outside Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
    In an address to the Congress of Compatriots in Moscow on Oct. 11, Putin acknowledged that Russia has done "little to help" Russian-speakers abroad in the past decade. "No obstacles should prevent us from feeling that we are a unified people," he said.
    The congress brought together 600 representatives of Russian-speaking communities in 47 countries, estimated at 25 million people.
    "Our people must have equal rights with the citizens of the countries in which they live," said Putin, referring to the allegations of discrimination against Russian-language schools and media outlets in other former Soviet Republics.
    State Duma chairperson Guennady Seleznyov promised to draft a new citizenship bill before year's end to facilitate naturalization of those Russians returning from the other former Soviet states.
    Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, millions of Russians in Central Asia became foreigners overnight, said Viktor Mikhailov, chairperson of the Slav movement in Uzbekistan.
    "It is sad that now the Russian Embassies in Central Asian capitals view us as Mongols, Chinese, or Angolans in terms of visa or citizenship application process," he told Russia's Channel 6 television.
    In response, Dmitry Rogozin, chairperson of the international relations committee of the Russian State Duma, suggested to facilitate visa and citizenship approval for ethnic Russians abroad. He also proposed to set up an international organization to defend the rights of Russian-speaking minorities outside Russia.
    A few years ago, Rogozin used to describe perceived discrimination against Russian minorities in the other former Soviet states as "racism." But following his election to parliament -- which he fought on the platform of protecting Russian speakers overseas -- Rogozin's statements became less radical.
    Flamboyant politician and leader of Liberal-Democratic Party Vladimir Zhirinovsky dismissed the gathering as a "Potyomkin congress," full of empty talk. "The congress was designed to camouflage the inability of Russian government officials to help our compatriots living abroad," he argued.
    There were other strong statements as well. "Russia should review ties with those states, which discriminate against ethnic Russians," Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said on Oct. 12. He described Latvia's and Estonia's policies towards Russian minorities as "outright apartheid," and lashed out at what he described as "language discrimination" in Ukraine.
    In 1998, Luzhkov called on Russia to boycott Latvian goods. Twenty percent of Latvia's gross domestic product (GDP) comes from transit fees on Russian oil and other goods.
    Latvia's new legislation requires that Latvian be spoken at public functions and to conduct business, even if all those involved are Russian speakers. Moscow condemned laws mandating the use of the Latvian language passed by parliament in Riga as a "discriminatory" action against the country's Russian-speaking minority, who make up 40 percent of Latvia's 2.5 million population.
    Most Russian speakers moved to Latvia during the Soviet era, and speak little or no Latvian. They complain the new law will hamper their businesses and deepen tensions between Russians and Latvians.
    In 1999, Latvia backed down on enforcing a new language bill that Russia and the European Union called discriminatory. However, the plight of Russian speakers remains a major irritant in relations between Moscow and Riga.
    Apart from Latvia, Russia is also concerned over the rights of some half a million Russian speakers in another Baltic country -- Estonia. Moscow has said there would be no improvement in Russian-Estonian relations until the problem of citizenship for the more than 300,000 ethnic Russians living in Estonia is resolved.
    Although up to one quarter of Ukraine's 50 million people view Russian as their mother tongue, the Ukrainian authorities are trying to limit the number of Russian-language schools and media outlets.
    The Russian government also has pledged to address the problems related to the plight of ethnic Russians abroad. Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko proposed the creation of an agency to deal with ethnic Russians living overseas and asked Russian businessmen to help build ties with them.
    "The Russian Diaspora has a considerable economic and political potential," Khristenko was quoted as saying by a local newspaper in Moscow.
    This year the government plans to allocate $3.3 million to help Russian speakers abroad, particularly those living in other former Soviet states.
    The problem is returnees wait for years to get Russian citizenship and -- during that period -- cannot get decent jobs.
    To improve the conditions of migrants, President Putin on Oct. 15 ordered the dissolution of Russia's migration ministry and transferred its functions to the interior ministry, which is now charged with tackling immigration issues and dealing with the presence of nearly one million illegal aliens in Russia.

  Picture Album

Another "digital" photo from our vacation this summer, of renovations being done in Vecriga, at the corner of Vagnera (Rihard Wagner) iela and Gleznotaju (Painters') iela, just down the block from our favorite book store.

latvians.com qualifies as a protected collection under Latvian Copyright Law Ch. II § 5 ¶ 1.2.
© 2024, S.A. & P.J. Vecrumba | Contact [at] latvians.com Terms of Use Privacy Policy Facebook ToS Peters on Twitter Silvija on Twitter Peters on Mastodon Hosted by Dynamic Resources