Russians in Latvia - Current Situation

Current Situation

Russians in Latvia live mainly in urban areas. In 2006 Russians made up 42.3% of the population in the capital Riga and 53.5% in the second largest city, Daugavpils (not counting others with Russian as mother tongue). Under the Soviets, arriving Russians had been settled primarily in industrial centers to staff factory jobs while rural areas remained populated almost entirely by ethnic Latvians, except for some small areas in eastern Latvia with a longer history of Russian-Latvian mixed villages. In 2010, ethnic Russians made up 27.6% of the population.

After reestablishing independence in 1991, Latvia did not automatically grant citizenship to anyone whose forebears arrived after June, 1940, a policy that mainly affected ethnic Russians. Knowledge of Latvian language and history was set as a condition for obtaining citizenship; these initial conditions have been relaxed thereafter. However, many Russians in Latvia still have alien status. As of January 2007, the majority of Latvia's ethnic Russians, 56.5% or 363,988 persons, had citizenship.

Another issue of contention is the status of the Russian language. Russian today is defined to be a foreign language by the Law on State Language. Ethnic Russians and other Russian speakers have protested against plans to require 60% of the of secondary school subjects to be taught in the Latvian language. Some representatives of the Russian-speaking community in Latvia claim discrimination by the country's authorities with these calls frequently supported by Russia.

In this regard, it is noteworthy to point to the global Russian press forum held in Latvia (Jūrmala) on July 25 – 29, 2000.

Anyone who legally (according to Soviet law) gained a residence in Latvia before the summer of 1992 was able to claim that residence upon Latvian independence, even if that legal basis included Soviet confiscation of property. Returning property owners seeking to reclaim their possessions were compensated with equal land elsewhere, with no recourse to reclaim the particular property itself, or with certificates which could be used as discount coupons in acquiring shares in privatized properties. The Latvian government also pays pensions to all resident retirees regardless of ethnicity or citizenship or non-citizen status.

There are several politicians and political parties in Latvia who claim to represent the Russian-speaking minority. These include For Human Rights in United Latvia which has one seat in the European parliament held by Tatjana Ždanoka, and the more moderate Harmony Centre obtaining two seats (Aleksandrs Mirskis, later leaving the HC, and Alfrēds Rubiks) in the European Parliament in 2009. These political parties support Russian language rights, the granting of automatic citizenship to all residents of Latvia and tend to be left-wing on other issues.