Putin Criticizes Estonia, Latvia in Anti-Western Article (12)

Published: 27.02.2012 14:53

Russian Prime Minister and Presidential Contender Vladimir Putin
( Photo: ITAR-TASS/Scanpix )

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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has once again blasted Estonian and Latvian citizenship and language policies, this time mentioning them in a lengthy article that mostly hit out against the US and NATO.

Putin's piece, "Russia and the Changing World," which appeared in Moskovskie Novosti on February 27, is the latest a series of pre-election articles he has released in the run-up to the country's March 4 presidential elections. Though most of the 6,000-word position statement lambasted Western military strategy and foreign policy, painting it as overly-agressive and irrationally anti-Russian, Estonia and Latvia were not spared Russia's traditional rap on minority rights issues.

"We are determined to ensure that Latvian and Estonian authorities follow the numerous recommendations of reputable international organizations on observing generally accepted rights of ethnic minorities. We cannot tolerate the shameful status of 'non-citizen,'" he said, as translated by Russia's state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.

"How can we accept that, due to their status as non-citizens, one in six Latvian residents and one in thirteen Estonian residents are denied their fundamental political, electoral and socioeconomic rights and the ability to freely use Russian?"

Putin also criticized Latvia's recent referendum on making Russian a state language, decrying what he said was 300,000 non-citizens being barred from taking part as well as what he termed the "outrageous" decision by the Latvian Central Electoral Committee to refuse to allow a Russian delegation to monitor the vote.

Both Estonia and Latvia have large ethnic Russian minorities among their populations, a legacy of Soviet-era migration policies. Most have taken Estonian, Latvian or Russian citizenship, however around 100,000 in Estonia and 290,000 in Latvia have still not opted to apply. Application for Estonian and Latvian citizenship in most cases requires passing a language examination.

 

Steve Roman

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Comments (12)

  • mart mang

    27.02.2012 17:01

    Putin is that concerned about the Russian speakers in Estonia and Latvia, why don't he welcome them home and they can speak Russian until the cows come home...

  • Instructor

    27.02.2012 19:04

    I would like to know how correct Putin's facts are. One in 6 Latvians and one in 13 Estonians? Anybody have a calculator and the last census data?

  • Giustino

    27.02.2012 20:14

    One in 13 Estonians, huh?

  • Ramsey

    27.02.2012 22:20

    How ironic that Putin should have something to say about "Non-Citizens" considering the number of Internally Displaced Persons residing in Russia today. It would be relevant to mention that the approx. 300,000 non-citizens residing in Latvia have made the decision themselves to not learn Latvian and therefore have been denied citizenship and not because of their ethnicity. The requirement to learn the language of the country you wish to be a citizen of is not an unusual requirement and has logical reasons behind it. If you do not wish to learn a country's language, why would you want to be a citizen? By adding Russian as a second state language in Latvia, those non-citizens would be able to bypass the need to humble themselves and recognize that Latvian is a valid and necessary language. As long as you refuse to learn the language of the country you live in you are assuming your language is superior. As an American living in Austria I would be equally as ignorant to demand that everyone speak English with me and I would be laughed at by Austrians and foreigners alike if I were to have the audacity to apply for citizenship without learning German. Russians living in Austria do not refuse to learn German. Why do they refuse to learn Latvian in Latvia after decades of living there? Can you answer that question and still assume that the Latvian government is discriminating against them?

  • Observer

    27.02.2012 22:22

    I'm not surprised that authoritarian Putin thinks these so-called "non-citizens" do not have the right to choose and Estonia should force citizenship upon them even if they do not want it as they are quite happy with visa-free travel to Russia while enjoying all the benefits of living in a country that ranks number one in the State of World Liberty Index.

  • karLcx

    28.02.2012 03:47

    a more useful figure would be the percentage of the population that can't speak latvian or estonian at all (or won't, or whatever). just because someone has the ability to speak russian doesn't mean they need to, or are determined to speak russian just to be in-your-face or make some political point. as for the figures, the usual fsb fiction.

  • ASVLatvian

    28.02.2012 08:07

    Latvian elections do not have the history of fraud that have been seen in Russia's most recent elections. Will Russia allow latvian and international delegations for purpose of monitoring their upcoming election. Certainly not. Also - why is the Russian govt concerned about Non-citizens in Latvia? This is simple mixing into a sovereign nations politics. Perhaps the Russians should concern themselves with the people killed in Syria, etc. Ridiculous!

  • Giustino

    28.02.2012 17:15

    Instructor - he's probably referring to stateless persons, about 94,000 in Estonia as of December 2011, slightly under 7 percent of the total population. It's probably closer to one in 14 or one in 15 as opposed to one in 13.

  • Stuff it!

    28.02.2012 19:28

    This is doubly hypocritical in light of what the Russians and their proxies did to the Georgians formerly living in South Ossetia during the relatively recent ethnic cleansing campaign. They weren't too concerned about rights in that case.

  • rommi

    01.03.2012 20:01

    well, yes, non-citizen thing is shameful. Comparing Estonia to Russia isn't the best thing here. Btw it's probably Putin's last year in power anyways...

  • avatar

    Pillandia

    01.03.2012 22:13

    The question of so called 'non-citizens' who couldn't vote in the last Latvian referendum is out of sense. The result for "yes-Latvian-only-language" was 75%. Imagine these 'non-citizens' might vote, saying all "Russian+Latvian", the "yes-Latvian-only-language" would win for 60 or 65%.

  • another amused German

    02.03.2012 11:32

    Why does anyone care about this russian governmental press release? It is directed to the voters in Russia - nothing else. It is like in other countries - foreign policy is internal policy. Putin just want to SHOW the voters that he is strong and cares about russian minorities in the former, annexed, parts of the USSR. The Russian government herself knows that in the EU noone (who has something to decide) believes in this periodical "our fellow russians are suffering" news and at the same time that Russia cannot change anything with that (public) attitude on this policy.