Member of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Elena Panina called the monstrous idea of a deputy of the Riga City Council to make paid communication with Russian company employees in Latvia with company employees, stressing that such initiatives spread ethnic hatred.
Earlier, the deputy of the Riga City Council from the New Conservative Party, Eva Martuza, proposed making communication between clients with employees of state and private companies in Russian paid. According to the deputy, if an employee of a state or private company is forced to speak with the client in Russian, then the client will have to additionally pay him for the translation service. Martuza offered a “tariff” – 10 euros for 5 minutes.
According to the deputy Panina, today, native speakers of the Russian language are the largest group in the world, subjected to discrimination on the basis of language.
“Before our eyes, millions of people are deprived of the right to education in their native language, the Russian-language media are closing down, an atmosphere of aggression and hatred towards the Russian-speaking people is being created,” Panina told RIA Novosti.
She added that basic human rights instruments are systematically violated, the provisions of articles 26 and 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights are prohibited, which prohibit discrimination, including on the basis of language and national origin, and give ethnic minorities the right to use the native language.
“But even against the background of everything that we saw in Ukraine and the Baltic countries, the proposals of the Latvian politician to make Russian-speaking citizens pay a kind of” tribute “for using the Russian language in predominantly Russian-speaking Riga looks monstrous,” the parliamentarian emphasized.
At the same time, said Panina, in 2019 Latvia became one of the three poorest countries of the European Union.
“The country is experiencing serious economic difficulties. However, instead of engaging in the development of the country, Riga deputies cultivate the image of the enemy in the person of the Russian-speaking population, sow ethnic hatred,” the State Duma deputy concluded.
In Latvia, one state language is Latvian. Russian has a foreign status, despite the fact that about 40% of the population considers him native. The new conservative party in the Riga Duma is in opposition.