By IPS Correspondents
MOSCOW, Jul 18 1999 (IPS)

Though Latvia backed down from enforcing a newlanguage bill that Russia and the European Union (EU) deemed discriminatoryagainst ethnic Russians living in the Baltic republic, the rights of socalled “Russian speakers” remain a major irritant in relations betweenMoscow and Riga.

In a predictably controversial move, the 100-member Saeima legislatureoverwhelmingly approved earlier this month the language bill – designed toprohibit the use of Russian in the workplace. Ethnic Russians make up 41percent of the country’s population of 2,5 million.

The law passed by a vote of 73-16, despite criticism by ethnic Russiansand concern expressed by the European Union. The new legislation requiresthe use of Latvian at public functions and in business, even thoseinvolving only Russian speakers.

Latvian president Vaira Vike-Freiberga refused to sign the bill andreturned it to Parliament on July 14, saying the legislators needed toreconsider several provisions, such as a clause that prohibited outdoorsigns in languages other than Latvian.

She argued that certain norms in this law are directed towardsrestriction, not education and integration, and the Parliament must nowreconsider the legislation by the end of August.

Her action followed calls from Moscow and the EU for the legislature toamend the law. Finnish foreign minister Tarja Halonen warned that the lawcould hurt Latvia’s bid for EU membership – Finland currently holds therotating EU presidency.

In a statement issued on July 15, the Russian foreign ministry praisedLatvia’s president. Vike-Freiberga’s decision was “realistic,” thestament said, and repeated previous charges that the law discriminatesagainst Russian-speakers.

The Council of Europe and Organisation for Security and Cooperation inEurope (OSCE) have warned Riga that a number of the bill’s provisionsviolate international human rights guaranteeing free speech. Moscow said itwas a “discriminatory” step against the country’s sizableRussian-speaking minority.

Latvian has already been declared the country’s only official language,and proficiency in Latvian is a requirement for citizenship. The Latvianlanguage, also called Lettish, uses the Latin alphabet, unlike Russianwhich uses Cyrillic.

Most Russian speakers moved to Latvia during the Soviet era, and speaklittle or no Latvian. They complain the new law will seriously hamper theirbusinesses and will deepen tensions between ethnic Russians and Latvians.

“Apartheid is Latvia’s official policy,” argues Dmitry Rogozin, leaderof the Congress of Russian Communities, a conservative movement devoted tothe protection of the rights of Russians living in the former Sovietrepublics. “It is not a European democracy, it is racism, he said.

However, unlike 1998, when the bill was introduced, the Russianpolitical elite refrained from vocal anti-Latvian statements and calls forsanctions. There was to talk of preparing a package of economic measures topunish Latvia as Latvian economy very much depends on oil transit fees.

Even presidential hopeful Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov, who had called toboycott Latvia last year, now kept silent, which prompted Rogozin’s groupto announce its departure from Luzhkov’s political movement, Otechestvo(Fatherland).

Even State Duma (Russia’s lower house of parliament) speaker GuennadySeleznyov – a member of the Russian Communist party who used to be a vocalcritic of Latvia’s discriminatory policies – sounded somewhat conciliatory.

“I understand that Russian people who intend to live in Latvia shouldknow Latvian, Seleznyov has said earlier this month. “How can one live ina country without knowing the language?” he argued.

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia has beenincreasingly accusing Latvia of discriminating against some 700,000 Russianresidents, most of whom moved there after the republic’s forcibleannexation by Stalin into the Soviet Union in 1940.

Around 550,000 bearers of old Soviet passports in Latvia were leftstateless when their documents expired last October.

Last year, the Russian government and opposition fiercely attacked theLatvian government for its presumed discrimination against ethnic Russiansand voiced support to economic sanctions.

Russian president Boris Yeltsin told his cabinet to find ways to bypassLatvia to ship oil to the west and supported initiatives by somepoliticians who advocated boycotting Latvian goods.

Yeltsin reportedly ordered to speed up building new oil terminals on theRussian coast of the Gulf of Finland, although experts say that theseprojects are several years off.

The economic sanctions were not formally announced, but some Russianregions effectively restricted imports. Russia is still Latvia’s largesttrading partner. More than 20 percent of Latvia’s gross domestic product(GDP) came from the transit of Russian oil and other goods.

Latvia’s economy contracted in the first quarter due to the Russiancrisis and informal import restrictions, but analysts said the 2.3 percentyear-on-year decline was not as bad as some feared.

However, oil analysts suggest that Russia has few alternative routes foroil exports. Some 11 percent of Russia’s some 100 million tons a year oilexports go through Latvia’s main outlet of Ventspils, second to Russia’sown Black Sea terminal of Novorossiisk which handles 25 percent.

Russian anger was further fuelled by the annual reunions of Latvianveterans of the Nazi SS in Riga, who participated in the repression inGerman-occupied Soviet territories in World War II. Moscow argues that theLatvian SS brigade was guilty of war crimes and condemned by theinternational tribunal in Nuremberg.

Latvia is the only nation on earth to celebrate officially its NaziWaffen SS heritage.

“The Russian Federation must defend Russian nationals – otherwise whoelse is going to do the job?” said conservative politician Viktor Alksnis,vice-chairman of All-Russia People’s Union and an ethnic Latvian himself.

Apart from Latvia, Russia is also concerned over the rights of some halfmillion Russian speakers in another Baltic country, Estonia. Moscow hassaid there could be no significant improvement in Russian-Estonianrelations until the problem of citizenship is resolved for more than315,000 ethnic Russians now living in Estonia as aliens.

According to the treaty with Russia, all former Soviet citizens wholived in Estonia before 1991 should have been given Estonian citizenship.Russia also blames the Estonian authorities of forcing 130,000 residents ofthe republic to receive Russian citizenship.

But earlier this year Estonia’s citizenship law was changed quietly,allowing an estimated 6,500 younger members of the Russian- speakingminority to take Estonian citizenship.

However, analysts in Moscow argue that the Baltic states are bowing toEuropean, rather than to Moscow’s, pressure. The EU and the OSCE have urgedthe Baltic states, notably Latvia, to do more to integrate its Russianminorities.

Latvia is trying hard to join the EU but was not invited last year intothe first wave of potential new entrants from Central and Eastern Europe.

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