Russia: Latvia “seriously short of democracy”

In winter this year, a Latvian party called For Human Rights in
United Latvia (PCTVL) organized the collection of signatures under a
draft law on non-citizens, which began immediately after a national
referendum on the status of the Russian language in the Baltic country.

In August, the PCTVL submitted the bill with 12,779 signatures under
it to the government. In September, the Justice Ministry declared the
proposed law unconstitutional, and later Prime Minister Valdis
Dombrovskis asked the Central Election Commission to check whether the
planned law complied with the Latvian constitution.

On Thursday, the Central Election Commission suspended the
organization of a second round of signature collection, claiming the
bill needed amending.

“The clearly politicized decision of the Central Election Commission,
which means even more rigorous discrimination against a significant
non-native proportion of the Latvian population, shows the practical
value of the hypocritical appeals of the leadership of that country for
‘social cohesion through an interethnic dialogue,'” Russian Foreign
Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement published
on the ministry website on Friday.

“The unwillingness of Latvian authorities to take account of the
legitimate rights and interests of the Russian-speaking minority and
their disregard for numerous recommendations from specialized
international organizations and institutions for abolishing the
‘non-citizenship’ institution, which is a disgrace for modern Europe,
mean that that country is still seriously short of democracy,”
Lukashevich said.

“We expect that these actions by official Riga will receive an
accurate assessment from UN, Council of Europe and Organization for
Security and Co-operation in Europe institutions on human rights and
national minorities,” he said.