BaltNews.lv
Education reform that will eliminate secondary education in Russian language, aims to force Russian community out of the country, commented the Russian Ambassador to Latvia Evgeny Lukyanov, Mixnews website reports.
He reminded that all inhabitants of Latvia, regardless of nationality, were fighting for its independence at the time. Nevertheless those who came to power have made Russians non-citizen status. Lukyanov underlined that outcome of the Reform is going to be sad: Russians will not become Latvians, and the country split will only intensify.
The Russian Ambassador agreed that there were many negative things during USSR times. At this, he reminded that people were divided by the nationality. “Nobody wants to remember that deportations were not done against Latvians, they were class-based and of ideological nature,” he underlined.
As the Russkiy Mir Foundation reported earlier, at the beginning of April, despite all protests of the Russian-speaking communities, President of Latvia Raimonds Vējonis approved of the amendments to the law on education which exclude any teaching in Russian at Latvian schools. Russian compatriots went on numerous strikes trying to attract the attention of authorities to the problem of Russian schools and to the fact that the new law requires revision.
At the end of April hunt for the Russian schools’ defenders began. The fist to be arrested was
Alexander Gaponenko. He was accused of anti-state activities. Later the Security Police opened a criminal case against organizers of All- Latvian Parent Meeting, where Russian-speaking parents sharply criticized the approved amendments.
Tatiana Zhdanok and other 7 people appeared on the list of suspects. Besides, the court allowed to arrest the human rights defender
Vladimir Linderman.
Russkiy Mir
