Latvia holds
referendum on Russian language
RIGA:
Latvians began voting on Sunday in a referendum
on whether to make Russian the second official
language, an issue that causes deep
divisions in the former Soviet-ruled republic.
With ethnic Russians, mostly from a Soviet-era settler community,
making up only a third of Latvia's
two million people, the drive to give Russian equal constitutional
status with Latvian does not look set to muster enough
votes.
The campaign has highlighted deep fault-lines
in Latvia,
which regained its independence from Moscow in
1991 after five decades of Soviet rule and joined the European
Union in 2004.
Pro-change campaigners say they
want to end discrimination against Russian
speakers.
Their opponents
see the Latvian language as a symbol of
freedom, remembering how thousands of ethnic
Latvians were deported to Siberia and
Russian was imposed in public life.
Worldwide, only 1.2 million people speak Latvian, compared to some
120 million who use Russian.
Latvia's
President Andris Berzins has dismissed the referendum as an absurd
attempt by radical Russian-speakers to grab the limelight after
losing ground to moderates in a snap election.
Berzins also argues that the issue has little relevance to ordinary
voters, as Latvia remains
locked in an austerity drive after emerging from the world's
deepest recession.
The hardline Russian-speakers' movement Native Tongue forced the
referendum by collecting signatures from over 10 percent of
voters.
But to change the constitution more than 770,000 people 50 percent
of the electorate need to vote in favour.
An issue that rankles among Russian campaigners is that when Soviet
citizenship became defunct after independence, the settler
community's members did not get Latvian passports
automatically.
Instead, they have had to apply for citizenship, which means
passing a Latvian language test.
Otherwise they remain stateless as remains the case for 300,000 of
them or have taken citizenship of Russia or
other ex-Soviet republic such as Belarus or Ukraine.
http://www.brecorder.com/world/europe/46218-latvia-holds-referendum-on-russian-language.html