© BaltNews.lv
The non-profit organization Russian School of Estonia issued a statement condemning the pressure on Russian-speaking human rights defenders in Latvia and Estonia.
Its authors observe that there is a rising misgiving caused by political repressions against Latvian activists and human rights defenders who support the maintenance of education in the Russian language. "Basically, the Security police is used for this," the document says.
"The unhealthy escalation of the situation is going on and an atmosphere of psychological pressure on activists is created," the Russian School of Estonia believes.
Recently activist of the Headquarters of Russian schools protection
Ilya Kozyrev was detained for two days. "This is another stage in the intimidation system because there was no point in this detention. He was not accused of anything and only a desire to frighten people backs it, " the defenders of Russian-language education in Estonia highlight.
Another side of the same system is the
arrest of Alexander Gaponenko who has been in jail for more than three months. He believes that he is being pressured in order to get the "necessary" testimony for the authorities.
Estonian activists emphasize that it seems like "it is not legality which is important for the Latvia's authorities but a specific task to intimidate the entire Russian population of the country." This already remains terror for elimination of dissenters.
"In the end all this leads to strengthening civil confrontation and division. Unfortunately, the European and international human rights structures have not yet fully realized the full scale of the problem."
Also in Estonia some right and right radical parties openly sponge on the topic of "transferring" Russian schools and kindergartens to the education in Estonian.
The non-profit organization Russian School of Estonia emphasizes that such proposals violate the Constitution and go against international conventions and recommendations. The authors of the document hope that "common sense will prevail and provocative proposals by right-wing parties will not find support and will not lead to another split in our society."
Russkiy Mir
