Oksana Zaitseva. Seamless integration

Seamless integration
Oksana Zaitseva

Publication date: February 27, 2004

According to Latvian officials, the goal of the new law “On Education” is to ensure full integration of the Russian-speaking population (about 30% of all residents) and make it competitive in the labor market. However, there is a wormhole in this lofty formulation - in Latvia for many years, preferences in hiring have been given not so much based on knowledge of the state language, but rather on compliance with state nationality. Russians are paid less, they are very rarely trusted with responsible positions - regardless of their fluency in the Latvian language.

Russian-speaking youth regularly go to protest rallies, demanding ratification of the European Convention on the Rights of National Minorities. The Latvian Minister of Education avoids talking about freedoms by hinting that youth pickets are sponsored by “one big state.”

And one of the youth movements of this “big state” recently held an action at the Latvian Embassy in Moscow with the beautiful name “Funeral of Latvian Democracy.” The Chairman of the Council of the “Energy of Life” movement (an unambiguous name, apparently hinting at a connection with one of the Russian political parties), Sergei Vostretsov, edifyingly stated that Latvian “statesmen should learn from the experience of truly democratic countries, for example Finland, where, along with Finnish, Swedish the language spoken by a national minority also has state status." Let us note, however, that Energia did not demand that Russian officials give national status to the Chechen, Tatar, or at least Udmurt languages.

Russian parliamentarians expressed their firm intention to discuss the situation of the Russian-speaking population in the Baltic countries in the OSCE. According to the Russian side, Latvia continues to grossly violate agreements on the rights of national minorities that it has not ratified. It seems that it is up to foreign observers to take care of national minorities in Russia itself.

Latvia, to put it mildly, doesn’t give a damn about our parliamentarians. Vaira Vike-Freiberga, president of Russia's Baltic neighbor, said on Thursday that "Latvia has practically achieved its previously set foreign policy goals, full membership in the EU and NATO - and now intends to develop cooperation in the eastern direction." And she invited the President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov to visit.

Yesterday, the Latvian Seimas adopted a law on joining NATO; on May 1, the country will join the European Union. On Thursday, Rolf Ekeus , the OSCE High Commissioner for Human Rights, met with members of the Latvian Seimas. And he did not show the expected human rights fervor.

“The most important thing to focus on is that all children have the same opportunity to receive a quality education,” Mr. Ekeus said delicately . There is no need for the OSCE to quarrel with Latvia. Let's unite, and then we'll figure it out ourselves, in a friendly way. Without Russia.