Justice could ratify the ban on public media
In the peaceful streets of Riga, the capital, languages become borders. Daniel quietly chats in a cafe with a friend when a client at the neighboring table interrupts him. “Why are you talking in Russian?” She gets angry. Born at the end of the USSR, a Latvian father and a Russian -speaking mother, the thirty -something masters the two languages.
But since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the language of Pushkin has been less and less accepted in this Baltic country. A turn from above, driven by Parliament under the pretext of national security.
Towards a ban in 2026 of public media in the Russian language
In this cultural battle engaged against the bulky Russian neighbor with whom Latvia shares nearly 300 km of border, a stage could be taken this April 26: the Constitutional Court must rule on the ban on Russian -speaking public media in 2026. In July, it has already validated the conformity of a law passed in 2019 prohibiting education in Russian in public schools.
For their part, parliamentarians will examine, this spring, a legislative text allowing students and students to no longer take, by default, Russian as a second language. So many radical decisions, not sanctioned by the European Union – of which Latvia has been a part since 2004 -, however sheds from the law of minorities.
60,000 Russian speakers in the country
Russian has never been an official language in Latvia. The majority of citizens voted against, in 2012. On the other hand, its programmed erasure upset the country’s 600,000 Russian -speaking people, a third of the population. A community from Stalin’s decision in order to russify, at the time, this new Soviet Republic.
Today, their descendants often live in a form of in-between, lettons of papers but Russian of culture. “They study in Russian schools, listen to information in Russian, dance on Russian music,” says Daniel. A cleavage accentuated by the invasion of Ukraine. In 2022, a statue symbolizing the Soviet victory over the Nazis was demolished. Daniel’s applause cost him his childhood friends. “You should burn for having taken the side of the Nazis,” he heard.
Twenty-five years threat
The Russian-speaking community is often perceived as pro-Puttine. Latvian power believes that removing these media will stop the Kremlin speech in the country. This lattonization of information could however produce the opposite effect. “It is certain. My Russian grandfather will manage to listen to the Internet on the Internet directly from Russia, ”anticipates Daniel.
Doesn’t that risk making Latvia a target? “It has been almost twenty-five years since Moscow threats and uses the same narrative as in Ukraine,” explains Philippe Perchoc, researcher at the Strategic Research Institute of the Military School. In line of sight: the border region of Latgale, inhabited above all by Russian speakers. An intimidation that targets a member country of NATO this time, ultimately much closer to us.
