His parents taught classic Russian literature and his party is committed to the interests of Russian minorities, but he is also infuriated at Russia’s attempts to spread discord in his nation. Last week, when the Russian envoy to the United Nations Security Council alleged rampant Russophobia in Ukraine and compared it to a “ linguistic inquisition ,” Latvian lawmaker Rihards Kols called it an old imperial tactic of the Kremlin, which has long presented itself as a protector of Russian speakers abroad as an excuse to invade sovereign nations.īoris Tsilevitch, a former member of parliament with the social democratic Harmony party, said he felt “disgust” at Russia’s audacity when he heard the comments. The use of Russian in airports, train stations, and several commercial establishments has also been prohibited. It is even considering a return to the mandatory military service that had been abolished in 2006, several years after Latvia joined NATO and the European Union.īut the most significant changes, anchored in new laws, are the pending elimination of the Russian language from standard school curricula and the establishment of Latvian as the only language in which to impart education. Wariness of Russia has already led to the removal of Soviet-era monuments and proposed renaming of a street that celebrated Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. More significantly, Latvia has separated the Latvian Orthodox Church from the Russian Orthodox Church and banned some Russian TV broadcasts.

But some experts worry the laws could dangerously deepen fault lines between ethnic Latvians and the significant domestic minority of ethnic Russians. Lawmakers hope the measures will deepen domestic cohesion against threats from Moscow.

Latvia, a small country on the Baltic Sea with just over 1.8 million people, has recently passed a spate of laws to reduce Russia’s influence in the former Soviet nation.

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