The Latvian Parliament commision on citizenship, migration and the society consolidation has held hearings on the report compiled by the ”PROVIDUS” center of the public politics entitled ”The Civic Apathy of the Russian-speaking poopulation of Latvia – a myth or reality?”. Its conclusions are rather disappointing but pretty predictable. According to the survey, only 23% of the Russian-speaking people of Latvia have an opinion that any resident of Latvia can express his political stances freely and without any fear.
Answering questions on the situations and specific matters they would rather not share their views in public, people aswered that it mostly refers to the usage of Russian and Latvian languages, the demand imposed on Latvian residents with Russian citizenship to reregister their residence permits and demolition of the monuments. These particular topics are extremely sensitive for the Russian-speaking Latvians. Therefore, it is not surprising that the survey finds that only 31% of their Russian-language respondents think that their voices have any meaning in Latvia.
Hih level of people’s disappointment in the Latvian politics is also understandable. 77% of the respondents have stated their disappointment. Besides, the level of bitternes towards Latvia has increased. If in 2018 the share of those who felt offended by the country was 44% among Russian-speaking Latvians, it reached 55% in 2022! At that, the share of those Latvians who stated their bitterness towards the state remained the same – 25%. It all indicates to the obvious growth of Russian-speaking people’s alienation which is the result of the fact that those who are in power do not hear people.
To better understand the situation, the experts have carried out a number of detailed research both among Russian-speaking and Latvian-speaking Latvians living in two districts of Riga – Bolderaja and Plavnieki as well as in three cities: Daugavpils, Rezekne and Liepaja. It turned out that in almost all groups people are of the opinion that they can not influence the decision-making process of the state which proves that the country’s Latvian-speaking population of these regions also feels alienated likewise their Russian-speaking compatriots.
If to analyze the situation at the level of municipalities, Liepaja happened to be an exclusion. Respondents who reside in this city, both Latvian-speaking and Russian-speaking, have the opinion that they can influence decision-making at the level of their municipality. While in two Riga districts as well as in Daugavpils and Rezekne the respondents think that there is not chance to influence decision-making even at the level of the local authorities. Therefore, the authors of the study state that something has to be done so that people develop feeling that their opinions are of interest to someone.
While Andrejs Judins, a MP on behalf of the ”New Unity” party, told that he is ready to speak to anyone regardless of their ethnicity if a person uses Latvian, an expert Iveta Kazoka stated that the language of communication should not be an obstacle and that it is important to speak to all people.
“In reality, a choice of language to speak to them is much less of a problem than it seems. Especially speaking about those living in Bolderaja and Plavnieki as most of them speak Latvian quite fluently, some others will, at least, understand, maybe answering in Russian,” she said, making it clear that communication is also necessary on the part of politicians.
We fully agree with this. We have always tried and will try to convey to the ruling politicians the views of the Russian part of the society, whose position they can also hear simply by coming out of their “bubble” and talking to ordinary people.
