I don't understand why ethnic Russians want to stay in the Baltic States if Russia is so fantastic in their eyes. Russia is so geographically close and is apparently a 'superpower', so why not move back there to your prosperous homeland? The Baltic States are small in population and deserve their own identity in the safety of their own countries. There is no legitimate counterargument here
I can give you an explanation, as I live in a highly Sovietized city in Ukraine (countryside = almost all Ukrainian, city = about 1/3 Russians). The Russians here, like in Latvia, came in the wake of the USSR killing and deporting lots of the natives. They could only trust loyal Russians to control the locals, so brought many in, mostly from Siberia here. I think this is partly because coming to a fairly well-developed part of Ukraine would seem like a great reward to a poor Siberian, who would now have the power of life and death over the locals, too. Whereas, someone from St. Petersburg would not be so impressed. Their descendants today hate Ukraine. They hate the Ukrainian language and refuse to speak it, even if they had to learn it for school. Why do they not go back to Russia???? Because, if they go back to Russia, they will be ordinary people. Maybe even poor. But, if they stay here (or in Latvia, Moldova, etc.), and stay loyal to Mother Russia, then, maybe, one day soon, they will get to be the masters again; the bosses over everyone, like they were before. Why be a servant in your own house, when you can be a master over somebody else's???
Easily. They watch Russian TV and are fed by Russian propaganda on a daily basis. They idealise Russia, because they don't face problems which are faced by Russians living in Russia in addition.
The same as Hawaiians will be not to blame if they integrate in to US society or white people who move to Hawaii and when in the future Hawaii will get independence from colonial overlord (USA) this pops (or their kids or grandkids) may start protesting and crying about how cool it was to be part of US. Even if relations with motherland (US in this case) for locals who they live amongst where of pure colonial domination and 0 consentual That how empires always worked cmon
Аs an ethnic Russian I disagree with the Russians in Latvia who strike a victim pose. Latvia was the most cultured country in the Baltics before the 1940 invasion. And as such Latvia suffered the most there. Russians were very diligent in destroying every thread in the fabrique of Latvian society. Singing was the only form of protest left to Latvians. And everything they did they did with dignity. This is my childhood recollection from the 1970s. Repeat: Russians are not the victims there!
Visited Latvia two years ago, was invited to celebrate sommer solstice by Latvians, had a great time. Beautiful country, nice people, I wish you all the best from Switzerland.
I'm from Vilnius, and one night in a bar I met a group of Latvians, great people, basically the first thing that we talked about was the Baltic way. It was heart warming. Latvians are great! Braliukai!
As an American who lives on the west coast I have to say that I am very far from Latvia geographically. However, I grew up just down the road from a Latvian church that twice a year would have sales of things like plants and baked goods to help fund them. My mother and I would go there frequently and they were always very nice people. Since the war in Ukraine started, I wanted to learn more about Eastern Europe at the very least just to stay informed about current events. I support Latvia and the Baltic states when it comes to staying independent from Russia! Stay safe guys!
Russia is not going to do anything bad to Latvia, or the Baltic States. The video is pure hyperbole. If anything, Russia will try to take in the Russians that want to exit Latvia.
@@nightelfuser just like they didn't do anything bad to Ukraine in 2014, it was all separatist locals, right? Daugavpils is prime candidate, and make no mistake, it is just a matter of time, probably 5 years or so after war in Ukraine freezes, that the same thing will happen here despite being NATO country, and NATO believes in allowing invasion and then maybe taking back, that was the initial strategy and western investment money understands the situation well, and will not risk capital here, which opens up the region to kremlin influence via lots of intermediaries, that is the basic mechanism, and if the sovereign country tries to do something about it - invade, protect russians, save them from discrimination etc
@@nightelfuser if you're referring to NATO, then you forget the not so long ago in a summit it was revealed that they will be defensive at best, in essence, they will allow russia to invade, and scenario seems very similar to what is happening in Ukraine, there won't be any large scale attack on russian soil obviously, and why waste valuable western military lives who don't even know what Daugavpils is? the hybrid war on EU isn't just for entertainment, the bigger picture is Putin trying to take back what Soviet Union had, and more, if you don't see it, then you wear the same pink glasses that western sellout flip flop politicians wore for 20 years while Putin was building up to these events
@@nightelfuserno it’s not, when Russia claimed Ukrainian land as rightful, they used old imperial and soviet borders, those borders also include Latvia and the Baltics.
Do u in America, or I in Australia, or anywhere in the world for that matter 😮 Why are POOR everyday (LATVIAN'S) cos that's what they are and have been for the last 60 years. Man I hate this war more than any other previous wars genocides what ever u wanna call it.😢 I'm from the Balkan's mate where depending on your religion could have depended on you seeing the sunrise tomorrow WE ARE ONE PEOPLE ❤️ DIVIDED BY RELIGIOUS BELIEFS IN THE BALKANS. Unfortunately they are the same people Russian/Ukrainian call them either honestly 🙄 the war must stop we are killing OURSELVES 70 YEARS AGO WE FOUGHT SIDE BY SIDE HAND IN HAND ✋️ WE ARE SLAV'S A PEOPLE THAT USED TO HAVE PRIDE COMPASSION AND HOSPITALITY WE LOOK LIKE DAM SAVAGES NO BETTER THAN PUTIN 60 Year olds kicked out of somewhere they probably hoped to one day be buried PROUDLY AS A LATVIAN OF Russian decent. What if it was your Grandfather or grandmother? 🇸🇮 S❤nia Slovenia
@@hymen2393 guys I think my comment is a bit misleading and misunderstood. The point I was trying to make was some of the founders of modern Russia were from Latvia so Russification did not even started with soviets because there were a lot of Russians already in Latvia many centuries ago and many of the most prominent Noble families hailed from Baltics in general. Latvia also had German nobles as well. I know we are not in 15th century but slavs existed in modern day borders in Latvia much more than some people would like to admit.
Why Putin wtf??? Hmmm we are GODS children or people of God How Did SOME of us get so dam nasty We should what BLAME the Russian people for putins calls🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶
@@lloydgush It is Putin's war. Putin and his hardliners. And he is hoping to sow integration issues elsewhere so he can have an excuse to expand these wars elsewhere. Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Serbia. The country leaders are being strong-armed into following Putin's commands, or Putin may order an invasion to "protect Russians"
I,m seventy and regularly eat Latvian oatmeal and Latvian corn flakes!! I live in Japan and those products are reliably available. I got cornered by a Russian from the old East Germany. He gave me a headache with all his talking points and Russian propaganda!!
Tell same to British retirees living in France and Spain and not speaking the local language 😂 bloody occupants, should have been sent back home after the Brexit 😂😂
The part with Olga Petkeviča (around 9min of the vid) was 'funny'- asking for the right to speak Russian in private lives (listening to music and so on), completely ignoring the fact that NO ONE is prohibiting her to do that, and NO ONE is planning to prohibit that. I grew up with Russian as my 2nd language. I have no problem speaking it. But the parasitic nature of Russians regarding their holy grail of 'keeping the tensions high' just shows the true (ruscist) nature of people like the mentioned Olga Petkeviča.
I would like to ask her, how would Russian people would feel about a community of Latvians wanting to speak Latvian , listen to Latvian music and follow Latvian holidays, while living in Russia? Would Russia let them?
@@Eck02 Speaking from Ukraine, we know how they feel about Ukrainians. They don't even like when Ukrainians speak Ukrainian, follow Ukrainian holidays, and listen to Ukrainian music in UKRAINE, let alone in Russia.
16:07 Olga didn’t reply how exactly is she discriminated from legal and legit perspective. I’m a Russian speaker from Latvia and I never been discriminated even in periods of my teenage age when I was brainwashed by Russian propaganda and for example would reply Latvian store assistant Russian in the shop even if I could speak good Latvian, but I felt I had to justify that we have to speak Russian just because that what I’ve heard on TV and from all these prorussian Latvian parties. Only now I understand how awful was my behaviour and how bad I made Latvian people feel in their own country….
Welcome to the other side! People like you, who in one way or another have come out of this cult of hating Latvia and Latvians, are shaping our common future. And I am always happy to hear about such people and their stories. We don't have to agree with each other on everything, we can compromise and agree to disagree, the main thing is that we are finally able to talk to each other! I also see new russian-orgin people coming into politics too, who is neither pro-russian or advocate for two community sociality as these pro-russian parties do. That's an amazing thing to see!
olga petkevica forgot to say that those 60+ years old ruzzians were only 30+years old in 1990ies. Those ruzzis just hate Latvia and its language (even calling our language "sobachiy jazik" (dog's language)) and demand to speak with them only ruzzian. How should we treat them? Should we respect them? Mostly they read, watch, hear ruzzian propaganda and are not interested in local news media. Most of ruzzian speaking politicians won't admit that ruzzia is aggressor, won't admit that Crimea is Ukrainian and so on...
Is it normal, that I, as a native Latvian, felt discriminated by Russian speakers in Latvia? Russians should look into mirror and stop damaging Latvia further!
@@Xxxray Same thing here, although they prefer to use 'fascist' here. Ironically if you examine the actual political beliefs of those same people shouting 'fascist', you can see that they match that description far better than anyone they shout it at.
It was us finns travelling Jurmala before Covid. Hub went to bar to watch Netherlands- Russia football. Hurrying Netherlands goal he got offended. Latvian bartender advised to take off, but there was no time. Fight went on in the front of pub. He fought his way off from several Russian speakers bunching n kicking. Otherwise trip was just fine. I believe we’re returning when.. And visited the KGB museum. Older Russian speaking tax driver told us not to believe what they’d tell us 🙄
@kat8992 Yey, you visited my city, just to see what Russian supremacist chauwinist mentality looks like trough violence. Very welcome, Jūrmala is among most russified of places, but i still love it. I missed that fight and didn't hear about it in the news (likely i was not in Latvia, returned here just before Covid time). It's simple mentality. To compare it to Latvian one: Slovenia played Latvia (though they lost badly) this week and i saw large groups of Slovenian tourists dressed in national hockey attire roaming the streets of Riga. Nobody was beaten up, they looked comfortable here. For contrast, there was a staple tradition in Jūrmala (i guess Rīga too) for groups of Russians from Russian schools to arrange or instigate fights with Latvian schools. Every time there was some school disco or other late gathering, there was a possibility of groups from Russian schools turning up and looking for a brawl or to beat up someone from a Latvian school (rarely other way around). Police presence near schools was not common then, not even for events like that. Thankfully this tradition ended after the '90s.
If I'm a native English speaker and move to China I would not expect China to just change their government institutions to my language. You live in Latvia, you should speak Latvian in public and government institutions
See, the problem is a belief held by almost all Russians, even those who dislike Putin (this attitude dates to Czarist times, and has nothing to do with Putin per se). They will not usually SAY this, because they know it would look bad, but, their attitudes imply this and make it obvious this is what they believe: they believe that these countries are not real countries. Of course, no Russian expects China to accomodate English people, because China is a country. But, to Russians, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Moldova etc. are all Russian provinces; places which belong to Russia where Russian domination is the assumed natural order of life.
You have the respect to local culture, but i don’t think it is true for the majory of english speakers. In lithuania I’ve met a lot of non-russian speaking(spanish, italian, english, french etc) native expats and in my impression, there is a bigger procent of russian speaking new expats willing to learn than these other foreigners. Especially, if the foreigner is of eu-origin, then the chance they learn lithuanian is super small.
@@MrSloika I'm good with that, the UK is basically an Arab country now so you should learn Arabic to make your life easier, or just move to Australia and steal our jobs like the rest of the English people. It's funny how your country was once on top of the world and now you all have to migrate to make a decent living. UK is a failed nation 🤣
Listening to the "Saskaņa" party representative was just unbearable.. nobody wants to make speaking russian at home illegal, we just want all people to know basic, VERY BASIC Latvian. I feel like she doesnt have a malicious intent, she just lives in the Daugavpils bubble
In daugavpils you have to speak Russian. It's the Russian city now. Before the war it used to be a Jewish and latvian city of course, after war it all changed. As a Latvian I rececently traveled to daugavpils and used many opportunities there to practice Russian and I could do quite well.
Of course nobody will ban speaking russian between relatives, friends and so on. BUT because of these "non-malicious" intentions like olga petkevica proclaims, russian language gets bigger influence for example in labor market. Because of these (d*mb) old ruzzians who couldn't learn a thing in Latvian since 1990ies when they were 20-40 years old, younger generation has to know russian language if you want to work public service, cafes, restaurants et cetera. As it was said in this video, young people don't know russian or know it very poorly. And because of that they will have trouble finding job. And that's a big problem here in Latvia.
every time I have been in Daugavpils I spoke Latvian. They had to practice Latvian 😄 Mostly there were no problems with younger people. I believe that my russian is good enough to have conversation with someone even I have never learned it at school, but I don't use it daily and if someone speaks to me in russian I asked them politely "Kā lūdzu?"
This was absolutely fascinating. I’ve had no particular interest or knowledge in Latvia’s situation before this, but this documentary painted a vivid picture of it, very detailed, very thoughtful interviews, and insight into the Mother Russia mindset… From Russians who won’t accept that they’re living in Latvia now, and no longer the Soviet Union. 5 stars to everyone who worked on this production. Absolutely brilliant.
Mexican-American here. It's very simple. If "Russians" want to live and stay in Latvia, learn to be more Latvian. Embrace the country you live in, otherwise go back to be with like-minded people. My parents immigrated to America from Mexico, but regardless of their reasons, political, economical, religious, etc, they raised their children to be AMERICAN. We fly the American flag and sing the American National Anthem. I am an American. Now, we can never forget where we came from, so of course we speak Spanish too and acknowledge our Mexican heritage, thankful to God for who we are, but we are MORE thankful for having a better life in the country that gave us an opportunity to be something better. I would never "go back" to Mexico because I am not from there, so I don't understand how people all across the world can go to another country and not even try to assimilate but instead have the audacity to demand the people there embrace THEIR foreign identity. Baffles my mind so bad.
For many people, in other situations, they didnt go to the other country. But others changed who rules the land above their heads. Let's demand Hawaiian language and assimilation from the billionaires who moved to Hawaii too, please.
Your parents have raised you as American, but parents of Russian people, and, more importantly, the State at the time raised them as Russians. It would be pretty much impossible to raise them as Latvian, the State would not like it. So it's hardly their fault at that point.
So the laws defended in the comments here are to haul the elderly people who passed language exams decades ago and have been living in peace and make them repass them again in their old age. Should we haul your elderly Spanish speaking relatives and make them retake the US civics tests under threat of deportation too?
@@janewright315 It's impossible to compare because they have a painful process of separation from the Russian and USSR regime/oppression, finally. And it will take very many years.
Lies, LSM, Latvian national broadcaster publishes articles in russian. You are not being discriminated, you are being asked to learn basic Latvian A2 (or is it B1).
@@hell_of_helios In Latvia?? I still know people that have a job and dont speak Latvian. Often the jobs even ask to have some form of Russian language knowledge
@@aleksisvargers7494 Actually, unless you are some kind of very low-paid physical laborer, B1 or B2 is necessary for a lot of jobs. While I agree that A2 is basic, B2 is definitely not.
@@grahortarg9933 Low paid or not, bus drivers, mechanics(not low paid), cashiers, there still are people that struggle with this and are in important social fields that you cant avoid. Sure in Daugavpils most of the employed people did speak when necessary, but there were situations, where you couldnt go through with the Nativa language
Having Russia on your border while having ethnic Russian areas in your country is a huge security risk... Good on Latvia for joining NATO as soon as they could
Olga, if You want to live good and peaceful life in Latvia, respect Latvian basic law - our constitution - and do not force Your Russian identity and thinking upon Latvian residents.
She literally isn't. She is literally talking about existing residents- elderly people being unnecessarily jerked about all of a sudden. It sounds like the situation is the that they're not the ones just left to live in peace.
@nvdolcevita1717 ok. Explain to me how speaking at home- of any language- is forcing anything on you. This entire conversation is kindergarten level stupid. If they were speaking Hindi, English, Hebrew, Urdu, etc would you be this outraged?
Sorry, but I have met old ladies who learn how to speak English and French at a basic level in America and Canada. You are telling Mr that you are living in Latvia for 6 or 7 decades and can't say: "hello, my name is x. Can you help me find this place?" That is bs
I'm Latvian. I live in a building in Riga with both Latvians and Russians. We respect each other and get things done together like renovating the stairwell and fixing the water pipes. Prosaic stuff that makes life better for everyone. This talk of ethnic tension is exaggerated by the media to help grubby politicians.
Common sense would be if we would make those changes 20 years ago... doing it now and right away creates a lot of chaos and lots of problems! I love this country and love being a part of such a small nation but that freedom is imagenary.
Not really, disenfranchising all those "russians", made some of them turn against the Latvian state instead of a natural part of it. A lot of problems would just not exist at all had they been allowed to keep their citizenship. They would vote and participate just like everyone else.
@@pettahify they did it in lithuania and now lithuania has a fifth column that votes against lithuania, normal human laws don’t work on russians appearantly.
I am a Russian-speaking Latvian and simply do not understand those who live here and associate themselves as "Russians" and refuse to speak/learn Latvian language. It is ok to remember your heritage and ancestral roots, but you must respect the place where you live. It is puzzling hearing Russian-speaking minority talk about how bad it is in Latvia and yet they refuse to move to Russia. I wonder why hehe.
@@sguploads9601 who is oppressed? They have an option to apply for Latvian citizenship - just learn the language and pass the exam. My grandmother did that years ago instead of moaning (unlike my grandfather, who is still going on about it but chooses to remain ignorant to local culture). People love to play the victim.
@@olivka7560 France and Italy are not threatening their neighbors; Russia is threatening their neighbors. Other countries with a Russian population rightly have to worry about 5th columns. There isn't such a thing as an Italian or French 5th column, thus nothing to worry about.
The fact we are seeing these radical ethnic Russians and hearing their complaints tells you all you need to know. How would a similar critism be greeted in Russia.
In Russia national minorities can study in their languages. Some of them have even their own states within Russian Federation with their languages being used in all aspects of life.
@@Superman-ef4nn you don't know what happened in Bashkiria with people who wanted to save their language? some of the people are now sitting in jail. 😂😂 so we can now jail Russians too if they say that in Latvia should teach also Russian? Let's goo.
@@purpplekushh yes I want that you make Russian official in Riga and Dpils just as Bashkir is official in Bashkiria. That would be fair and democratic. And I want that Russians won't sit in jail in Latvia just because they are Russians just like Bashkirs don't sit in jail just because they are Bashkirs.
These situations are VERY similar to what existed in the Russian separatist areas of Ukraine and Georgia and Belarus. If you had asked the people in those areas if they wanted to invaded and controlled by Russia they would have said no, but there was a vocal minority that wanted exactly that. That was the excuse Putin used to invade and impose his neo-Soviet empire on those people. He absolutely will do the same everywhere that allows the Russian propaganda bubble to exist. Derusification is absolutely necessary in the public sphere.
Yes, that’s exactly the same tactic. What else they were doing calling all us Russian speakers in Latvia as “Russians” or “our Russian people” or “compatriots” or spreading misinformation that there are 45%of Russians in Latvia, while it is 45% Russian speakers and only around 22% are kind of ethnic Russians, because even a good part of these 22% still would be mixed nations.
no, derussification is the exact reason ethnic russians would rather support putin over the countries they live in. if there was no derussification, i doubt there would be such a big support for putin among these ethnic russians
I don't know anything about Georgia or Belarus, but afaik - East Ukraine got Russified _during_ the Soviet Union and not before, right? I guess you're talking about 2014 with regards to Ukraine?
@@edmis90 east ukraine in old times was a weakly populated steppes area that didn't belong neither to russia or ukraine(well ukraine didn't really exist in that time but there still was cossack hetmanate). the main people of the east ukraine were turkic nomads. then the east ukraine started belonging to russia and it started being populated both by ukrainians and russians, but mostly ukrainians. after that there were certain demographic changes but the point i am trying to provide still stands: there is a little sense to claim it as *THE* ukrainian territory or *THE* russian territory, since the influence or some sort of "historic right" there was mixed for the both sides. so i don't see why would that be a problem for both ukrainian and russian being official languages there, regardless of what country this area would belong, which still probably should belong to ukraine, since it's the invaded side, not the invader side. even though i would rather prefer united european country that would include both ukraine, european part of russia and western and central europe. or even more based solution: get rid of all national borders. well that should be the endgoal, while the united europe should be the nearest future goal. it's a shame that this war is preventing the implementation of this goal
@@edmis90 you can just open presidential election results before 2014 in Ukraine and see which regions supported pro-Russian people, and those are exactly regions which Putin is fighting for. Ukraine will never tell whole image of what was happening in the country, country was basically split in half for many years.
At 11:00....it's not their home, though. They are Russians, proud members of a colonial occupation force, who are so proud of their identification with the imperialist invader that, even after 33 years of independent Latvia, they refuse to learn Latvian. Russia is their home and they should go back to it.
My biggest issue is not with the people above the age of 60, there is little to no point in trying to derusify those that still miss the USSR. My issue lies with the new parents teaching their kids russian as their first language while living in Latvia. Eventually those children are going to begin to resent latvians because we refuse to talk in HIS first language.
How come a place where I was born and lived all my life, my parents were born and lived all their lives, is suddenly not my home? What exactly is my home, then? Is it Moscow? Is it Siberia? Is it Voronezh, may be? How about Crimea, is Crimea my home? Also, have you LOOKED at European map? EVERYONE is a part of an occupying force couple of generations before, what should we do with them?
@@grahortarg9933 the grand majority of europeans considers colonisation and imperialism so very 1900 thinking. If you speak to russian-russians they think it is an ok thing to do though. As long russia has the means to invade other countries it always be iffy to be a russian by language and culture outside russia. Muslims who immigrated to europe and cling to there language and culture found that out too. I have lived most my life as an immigrant and never thought my host country has to acommodate me in any Form or way. I learn the language and cultural norms and keep my mouth shut regarding how they do things. It is not my right to change the way things are in countries and cultures i do not belong to. And the fun thing is, i always was very welcome, no one had issues with the foreigner living in there middle. Most people are very interested in other cultures even. As long one does not try to push ones own onto others.
@@erichbreckoff3405 that's up to you. I'm not an immigrant. It is not a country I do not belong to. It is literally my right to have a say in how my country behave, to have a say in what is norm and what isn't. I was born to this right. At least those are my feelings on the matter. Obviously, it's not up to me to decide, but I definitely have a right to have an opinion and to voice it.
As a Latvian I can say there is close to 0 chance of any threat of separatism, it's mostly an overblown issue, there is no huge movement of ethnic Russians that would call for it or actively work for that goal, there are some disagreements on the role of Russian language in public life but also rather small chance that more nationally radical government will be elected so most likely it will stay as it is +/-... Also since the Crimea events the army and NATO have prepared exactly for this scenario to put down any separatist leanings or beginnings before they take root. Also a number of most active potential troublemakers have left the country to go to Russia or Belarus already. As for Putin, he has to think about Ukraine first. Second, Kursk invasion by Ukraine has shown there is no real eagerness for Russians as a general public to go to war, engage in partisan movement or anything like that. Most just left the areas that Ukrainians took, leaving behind the elderly. What it has also shown is that nukes will not fly due to some action vs Russian troops on Russian soil so in case of any Russian invasion of a NATO country, NATO has free rein to destroy Russian military assets in Russia etc. with F35s and other air power, which is one aspect of war in which NATO is clearly far superior than Russia and which does not lead to many military deaths for NATO countries too. So Kursk invasion in a sense was a blessing showing Kremlin and us that there is no patriotic frenzy in Russia and there are no insane decisions coming from Kremlin.
Latvian Russians are getting older on average - old populations are not usually prone to political violence or revolts. Young people who disagree with the policies are leaving for other EU countries. Most of my local Russian friends left for Spain \ Netherlands \ Germany \ Poland \ Austria, etc.
Yes, look at the countries who got invaded. They are all non nato countries. Like Putin thinks he can undermine nato, but the reality is, if any of the baltic countries get invaded, most post sovjet are getting involved immediatly and then the rest will follow like a day after because at that point you cannot deny article 5.
@RUclips_Enjoyerlol Latvia met all such standards, hence why it is a full EU & NATO member. Funnily enough, when the russian federation tried to join NATO in the 1990s, they did not meet most of NATO's entry requirements. Better for you to focus your attention on the Latvian & Ukrainian ethnic minorities in the russian federation and compare how their rights are protected in practice, as opposed to the facade of kremlin propaganda.
Olga Petkevisa is blatantly lying. No one is discriminating Russians. I have a lot of Russians friends and we also speak Russian, Latvian, Latgalian and in other languages. They do not want to associate themselves with Russian regime, nor Russian radicals in Latvia, they respect country in wich they are living. If You are normal person and You also respect each other and country we all are living, there isn't any problems. Russian radicals should leave for paradise in Russian Federation, if they do not like here.
I agree. Russians everywhere believe if they can’t be in complete control as imperialists, they play the victim..‘help us Putin‘ ‚invade this country which is not Russia and force Russian brutality on them‘ Latvia must stand firm.
Olga, people of your age agree with Russian policy to take over the former Soviet Union. You are delusional to think you are been discriminated. Choose between Latvian citizenship and its rules or return to Russia if you choose not to obtain Latvian citizenship. There is no such thing as Latvian Russian. Russia has only short history in Latvian as an occupier.
I think Olga knows exactly what she's saying to make Latvia look bad. Never heard of not being able to speak Russian in Latvia in everyday life and not being able to listen to music in Russian language. Absolute garbish. Referring to elderly people, all their lives they had the opportunity to learn our language, but they chose not to because they doesn't respect our country. They are also more septepable to propoganda and more likely to have harming beliefs.
Good. When the guys performed in Riga, they were given a fine that they sang in Russian, is this normal in your opinion?.. 2 case, Latvia blocked all Russian sites and Yandex, is this also "freedom of speech"?
@@cute8962 Fill me in on what guys are you talking about and which sites were blocked. The context is important. Regarding blocking Yandex - do you need it here? Do you need your data on Russian Federation servers? I personally don't. Simple case of our national security.
Yo ! I'm polish living in Latvia for over 6 years. Speaking latvian fluently. Don't understand the problem here. Just learn the language. Don't understand russian and not once i felt need to learn it. Feel proud to be able to speak this beautiful and very small language !
OLGA PETKEVIČA, stop lying! nobody is stopping you from talking in russian with your family or friends. Just don't push it on latvians! if you approach me on the street or are talking to a shopkeeper, they DON'T have to reply in russian!
But you could reply in Russian right? At least you could try? Not that you have to but it's about the language practice and using the opportunity to increase confidence in using Russian. Daugavpils is a great place for that. I just recently went there and used many opportunities for practicing Russian there and did quite well
@@dreamthedream8929 No darling! It is a perfect opportunity to practice Latvian! A Latvian is not obliged to speak russian within their own country. Just like Latvians do not expect anyone to speak Latvian outside of Latvia.
It's very strange to hear someone say that they have lived in the country for over 20 years and didn't even try to learn Latvian, and now that woman presents it as a problem for the government. No, it is only a problem for people who don't care about others and don't even try to learn the main language in the place where they live. The problem is only one: ruzzian speakers often don't acknowledge other languages and frequently get mad if you don't speak ruzzian...
Really? It's strange? It's extremely common, especially in older people. I live in a very multicultural area in the US. People from thr middle east, India, Nepal, Europe, Korea, etc. I know families from all of those countries. Without fail the elderly relatives barely speak a word of English, even in the wealthiest of families that send their kids to elite private schools here. But yeah, pretend it's just only the "rUzZiAnS"
@@janewright315 What you obviously don't want to understand that after many centuries of the Russian oppression people want to have back their OWN IDENTITY/CULTURE/TRADITIONS/LANGUAGE... You are constantly comparing USA with Latvia and completely forgotten that it's the country of the IMMIGRANTS.
@vitalipopkhadze369 I'm responding to the US person who is applauding the policy of having an exam that would exclude and deport existing residents- especially elderly- while enjoying being an immigrant with family safe from such policy. The US may be a country of immigrants- after decimating the native population of course- but it is a sovereign nation with plenty of similar civics exam standards already in place. Your claims are irrelevant. Your comment is nothing but a feeble attempt to defend hypocrisy
*@JaneWright* You can play your funny games as long as you want it doesn't matter. And as an American citizen with duel citizenship (American/Russian) I KNOW THE LAW IN THE US. Why don't you try your "games" in Russia with a lot of ethnic groups.. Good luck..) You forgot to mention the "decimating natives population" in Russia/USSR for CENTURIES and what become of them. How so?.. (rhetorical question)
It sounds crazy that some people would live in a country for decades, refusing to learn even the basics of a local language, just to prove the superiority of their native language and culture
@@peterwilliams2152and none of those minority languages are taught in state schools. Very few schools still have one lesson a week of a minority language, (in their specific region) and that too will be banned in the next 1-2 years. Already more than half of the local, ethnic residents no longer know their own language. It is a slow genocide of their language and culture... It is like slowly boiling the frog, that doesn't realize that it is being boiled alive coz it is being boiled slowly, so slowly, it doesn't feel the rise of temperature until it is too late.
I live in Latvia as a russian speaking foreigner for 10 years. Absolutely zero discrimination to russian speaking me. My russian speaking child went to latvian childcare where caregivers were super kind and helpful. All officials are very supportive and helpful when it comes to my very imperfect latvian. My observation is Latvia has very strong stance about history of occupation and those who publicly deny it will certainly face prosecution, by the laws. Local Russian community has very little number of those deniers and there are few politics who build their careers around calling it oppression and pretending to fight against it.
Sorry... How do these poor old people "not remember a word of Latvian" because they are sooooo old and helpless - but yet they have jobs? Russians are always the victim.
That's not something unusual. I have troubles remembering Latvian, but I have no trouble remembering English or doing my job. I've learned English as a child and teen, so it stuck in my memory.
It was a major mistake to keep the primary and secondary education taught in Russian. The transition period from Russian to Latvian in all schools should have been completed 20+ years ago. Not only it would have partially deflated the "USSR bubble", it also would have been beneficial to the Russians themselves, as without Latvian proficiency acquiring higher education and having a high-paying job is much more challenging to achieve. By following the call from Russian propaganda to "protect" their language, and with the help of Latvians who were taking an uneasy stance in this question, Russians brought discrimination upon themselves. Petkevica's apologist stance on the 60+ aged supposedly being victims through "forced" learning of basic Latvian vocabulary and grammar is despicable. First of all, when the USSR collapsed, these people were aged 25 to 55. They have lived in Latvia for more 33 years (that is more than 12 000 days), each day passing by writings in Latvian, in the shops, on the food packaging they eat. I genuinely cannot understand how even passively they failed to acquire A2 level of Latvian. It is not like the language is completely different as well, apart from a different writing system, some vocabulary is also shared or similar. For example, I know a few hundred words in Estonian due to the language being visible on packaging and while visiting Estonia.
I know a lot of people from Latvia but most people under 30 speak latvian as a first language, if their parents are latvians. The people with Russian parents obviously speak Russian first but they need to speak latvian for school and life so in smaller cities or communes it is really latvian
We have the same problem in Lithuania - russian kindergardens and schools. Russians are boilimg in their own soup and never learn lithuanian. They consume russian propaganda and then vote accordingly. It's a threat to national security.
Before you preach, let 's remember that Russian army troops were in the country until 1994, we joined NATO in 2004 only. There were countless number of Russia paid and just enthusiastic "experts" preaching on how gently we should handle offsprings of Russian occupants, šo they do not feel suddenly opressed.
Yes. Just like Russia. The Russian state and many Russians seem to think that unless they are able to occupy a position of dominance, locally or internationally, then that makes them a victim of some kind of racist discrimination.
Remember this these Russian complaining the most are often people who have lived in Latvia for as much as 40 years. But supposedly don't know as much Latvia as a tourist who has visited Italy a couple of times knows some Italian. They were so used to a privileged status socially, economically and politically over Latvians. In 1991 they simply kept thinking in a couple of years Russia will reconquer Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia and we will be back on top, so why bother learning any Latvian. They wanted to remain loyal to Imperial Russia and not dirty themselves with the language of the inferior servant race. If their children and even grandchildren still think the same way and STILL after spending essentially their whole life in Latvia don't speak the language, what do they expect? Well it seems reconquest by Russia and oppression of the native people of a sovereign nation state. Some people as the English say watch too much TV and believe what the see on the internet.
Bro all of them Russian Latvians they been there since 1940s so anybody who younger then 80s years old been born there .. and it’s pure discrimation going on there
Dude how about the Latvians who celebrated Hitlers army coming in to “liberate” Latvia of the inferior races in the 40s? It was a majority of Latvians. They are just nazis with a dream - while most of every Latvian company is owned by swedes anyways.
@user-oy7sp6ut1d no tf there isn't 😂 the Russian minority is consistently the problem. Again. These are Russians who willingly separated themselves from the Latvians because they genuinely believe that Latvian identity does not matter and should be subservient to Russian interests. This is LITERALLY the point as well. Russificafion works like this, and Putin goes out of his way to make sure he can weaponise Russians abroad
My work colleague is from Lithuania. He is Russian and Z. He told me he doesn`t know Lithuanian , despise being born and growing there. He learned in Russian school in Lithuania. How is this possible? Russian school inside an EU country?
This is a great film, it says as much about the mentality of oppressive Russian colonialism as it does about Latvia, and helps understand the motivations of the many nations Russia has invaded since 1991.Thank you for your contribution too.
I think you underestimate the tenacity of these people to isolate themselves from the natives. Unless they are deported, I don't think the language will vanish from Latvia.
Oh no, hardly. I noticed that even in mixed Latvian-Russian families, kids usually watch cartoons in Russian and maintain good command of the language. My daughter speaks Latvian in school but all her life outside of the school is in Russian. Latvians will sooner switch to English than local Russians stop speaking Russian.
Be Latvian and European or Russian. Your choice. But if you want to be Russian, leave. Or we have to deal with the big man because he wants them back. No matter their opinion.
Why should someone who lived in some place for 3 generations, live just because he want to belong own ethnicity, not change into some other, foreign to him? Say, hypothetically, I'm a Russian in Latvia; I was born here; my parents were born here; my grandparents were, but it also wasn't their choice to come here and they've built a home for themselves here. Now, after three generations, people have roots here, live, home - not only their home, but family home or homes, kept in the family for 80 years now, where everything reminds them of their family, of parent and grandparents, homes build with their own hands; and, of course, family graves and family connections and so on. On the contrary, there is absolutely nothing in Russia that I could call my own; no family, no home, no connections, no memories. I'm not going to move to Russia, right? We are not very mobile people in this part of the world, it goes for any ethnicity; we aren't used to move our lives around. So, moving to Russia is not a choice, it's simply not an option, a lot of people would rather die than move. So we've established that moving is not an option, why is there even talk of ethnic/cultural change? Do you even understand that setting the question like "if you want to be an ethnicity, leave" is ethnic cleansing? "If you want to be Albanian, leave Serbia and move to Albania" - sounds good? "If you want to be Muslim or Moroccan, leave France!" "If you want to be English, leave Ireland!" - how about that? Why suddenly "if you want to be Russian, leave Latvia" sounds better? It's not as if I want to be Russian, it's who I am. When I'm thinking, I'm thinking in Russian, my culture is Russian, when I think of ethics and dilemmas I'm thinking in quotes of Tolstoy and, I don't know, Strugatskis', not in quotes of Kipling or Rajnis. What is good and what is evil is imprinted into me from my childhood, by school, soviet Russian books, soviet Russian movies; by songs and tales. How can I stop being Russian? What changes the nature of a man? Seriously, people, you make it sound so easy. Why don't you go and solve Israeli-Palestinian problem next, if it all is so obvious?
@@grahortarg9933russki mir is at the present an problem, right? Afaik learning a second language is not to much to ask if one lives in an country not using ones first. And be honest, russia made very sure that having a russian population is a very high risk for an country. And putini is not the only one who thinks this way, plenty russians in russia consider east europe theres to do as they please with. It is an very imperialistic culture since it beginnings and never changed.
@@vitalipopkhadze369 we can talk about it, but it's not the question that was raised in original post, is it? "If you want to be Russian, leave". There is nothing here about knowing the language, is it? Don't change the subject.
@@erichbreckoff3405 It's not easy to follow your points, sorry if I'll misunderstand something. Let me change the discussion a bit: "Religion-based Muslim terrorism made very sure that having a Muslim population is a very high risk for a country. Therefore, if you want to be Muslim, you have to leave Britain, France, Germany or America". Sounds okay? Also "plenty Muslims in Arabic nations consider Europe as a place for Jihad. It's a very terroristic culture since beginnings and never changed". It may be even true, but so what? Are we to expel all Muslims from Europe?
The best part is that in Latvia there are some of young (male) Russians who seems to adore current Kremlin's policy. If you ask them why don't they support SVO by enlisting or even just visit Russia they usually reply with silence.
Good for England. If you want to live in a country that's Muslim then move to Saudi Arabia! Nobody will stop you. Bye! I'm sure you're not a hypocrite and you're good with this.
@@Seraph2222 In Latvia Russians do, many of them are fluent, some of them do not speak Russian anymore, speaking Latvian as the first language. I think it is about the same in Estonia and Lithuania.
Exactly, some of my relatives were deported to Siberia. Parents had to learn Russian in school & pressured to be involved in Pioneers as children to be indoctrinated in Soviet ways. They tried to destroy Latvian culture & this woman whines about being discriminated against! There is no legislation against her speaking Russian amongst her family/friends. She blatantly lies.
Latvia: a looming threat of Russian separatism [DOCUMENTARY] 1037am 11.9.24 those settlers from slavic regions during soviet era... it is a simple and obvious question to ask: how much of a choice did they have re: being uprooted and moved to other regions of europe?
@@silverbullet2008bb Comments on ‘Latvia: a looming threat of Russian separatism [DOCUMENTARY]’ 2339pm 29.9.24 ah, ok. so i can kick those toadies out my childhood home as i didnt give permission for them to be there and i didnt hand over the keys to the home to them...? i had no say in the matter... people who allegedly know better decided that...
THOSE OLD 60 YEARS russian speaking people 34 years ago was 26 years old in 1990, they had 34 years to learn latvian language language of country where are you living. ( and last election data of russian election that those russians who lived here 80% was woting for putin .. so OLGA is protecting fans of Putin!
Here in Finland we have 2 official languages; Finnish and Swedish. It mostly works fine but there are extreme differences vis a vis Russian in Latvia. Although Swedish was the language of the coloniser, Sweden hasn’t controlled any part of Finland for over 200 years, they’ve rarely interfered in internal politics and have never attempted to drive a wedge between Finnish and Swedish speakers through propaganda. In Latvia, the history is much more recent and rawer. Russia consistently tries to interfere in politics and uses its propaganda to create an oppression narrative in Russian speakers. If Russia had tried to act like a ‘normal’ country rather than as a temporarily displaced colonial master, the Latvian state may have been more open to equalising language rights but the Russian state attitude is to act like a vindictive jilted wife beater never to accept the choices of their former ‘partners’ (or possessions as they see it). It makes for an intolerable situation which any proudly independent nation cannot hope to accommodate given that it is bound to lead to further degradation of their culture. Maybe someday Russia will grow up as a nation but I’m not holding my breath.
Swedes are no more colonizers of the natives than the finno-ugrics. Neither one of the groups are native. Finnish speakers arrived in Finland 1800 years ago, Swedish 1200. There were natives there for thousands of years longer.
@@catalincarceanu7991The time of Russian rule lasted only about a hundred years and Finland had autonomy during that time. When the Russians started policies of undermining the autonomy it was called russification and was really unpopular. These short periods of time became known as the times of oppression and they provoced Finnish nationalism and independence activism, up to and including armed struggle. This culminated in the so called jaeger movement during the first world war and finally independent statehood as the Russian empire collapsed. Ever since Finland has been an independent, sovereign country. There still is a Russian minority, but much smaller and less problematic than those in the Baltic countries.
@@catalincarceanu7991 No. The official bilingualism of the state derives from conditions that far past, when Swedish was the only official language and Finnish the folk language. There is a more influential Swedish-speaking minority because of that and some areas of the country are still basically run in Swedish. As Finnish language has gotten the same official status, most Finns have no regular use for Swedish language and for most it has fallen out of use in most other than official contexts mandated by law.
It is important to highlight that Russia initiated the Russification of the Baltic region and the South Caucasus during the era of the Russian Empire. The Russian Empire was a colonial state, as was its successor, the Soviet Union, both of which engaged in colonialism to benefit Russia while oppressing or deporting the local population. Russia aimed to transform Riga, the capital of Latvia, into a Russian city, relegating the Latvian language to the status of a peasant language. Notably, Russia successfully implemented similar policies in Belarus. For Russia, language has been a key instrument of Russification, and the Kremlin continues to use language effectively in its foreign policy to assert control over parts of other countries' territories. As a Georgian, I understand this better than many others. The Russian government believed, and still believes, that others should learn Russian instead of their native languages, such as Latvian. If Russians want to be citizens of Latvia, they should learn Latvian and integrate into Latvian society. Why should Latvians tolerate agents of Russian influence in their country? They shouldn't, and they don't. I wish Latvia continued success in resisting such influences.
For someone like me, an American expat, recently arrived here in Latvia to teach English at the university and community levels, this video is helpful to understand the cultural dynamics here. Thank you.
please also read the comments under this video so you can get even an even better insight into what the Latvians think about some aspects of this video :)
As a Latvian, this is a topic that really stirs emotions for me and many people I know. In Riga, we often encounter very prideful Russian speakers, and the level of aggression we face for not responding to or understanding a language that isn't even an official language here is truly unsettling
Nobody is stopping anybody from speaking their own language, but if the language isn't the official language of the country there is no need to teach it in schools no matter what the mother tongue of the person is or how large the minority speaking the language is. Same goes for offering services: no human right says that you deserve service in your own language that isn't the official language in the country you live in.
There are EU countries which official policies are completely different to what you describe here. French-style "jacobin" language policy vs Belgian one where minorities can study in their own languages.
@@stariyczedun my favorite excuses of why kids that were born after regaining independence dont know latvian - because they didnt have enough practice of it. One of most interesting sideeffects is that latvian youth that dont have russian language skills are more at disadvantage in job market than ethnic russian youth that dont know latvian. My favorite saying from ethnic russian in Latvia saying that knowing languages is "wealth" (funny it's treasure/wealth only when latvians are demanded to learn russian not when russians need to learn latvian). Another one "beautiful" thought from ethnic russians -latvian language is dog language and that is humiliating to learn it.
@@CrapeCraft russians are not linguistic minority - they have 140 million population country while latvians in the world are ~1.5million. Latvians are linguistic minority.
To someone used to privileges, equality feels like persecution/discrimination. The old ethnic Russians in Latvia vote with nostalgia for the USSR, but against their own interests... This is why they are still a problem.
“Let us speak Russian, let us listen to Russian songs in public, let us celebrate Russian holidays - why not?” asks Olga Petkeviča. A look at Russia’s colonial history and Latvia’s experiences with Russians could answer her question … 🤔
As an American, all my life I heard of the captive nations of Latvia, Estonia, and Lituania. That were invaded by the Soviet Union. Thousands of them were deported to Siberia just because Stalin considered them a threat to his reign of terror. Whole families were torn from their beloved lands and sent east. Many died, all of them suffered torture, cold, beatings, and starvations None of them knew why Stalin was doing this to them. So I am glad that at last, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania have their independence restored at last, and are no longer captive to the whims of what ever dictator rules in Moscow. Tiny Finland would also have been one of the captive nations, but they fought so hard for their independence that even though they lost a big part of their lands to Russia, the Russians gave up trying to take all of Finland. Anyone who lives in one of these long suffering nations should be proud to learn the language, culture, and become a citizen, now that at last they are free of Moscow.
Exactly. 65 years is too old to learn a language? The Latvian state has been independant for 30 years. Latvian was also a state language during ussr times, so if the person couldn't manage to learn the language in 40 or 50 years they have lived there, they have no right to complain right now. You have to put in extra effort to not manage to get A2 level after living in the country for several decades. People like this deserve only a one way bus ticket to mother ruzzia.
The more languages you know, the richer you are! Say this to any russian in any baltic states when you ask them to learn native language and see what they reply! 90% of the time they will say: fuck I do not need your latvian, estonian or lithuanian languges, I have no use for them, I speak russian.
While the history lesson may be interesting it is totally unnecessary. Russia as well as any other country has absolutely no right to seek to coerce or force any country to require or even allow Russian to be spoken there. Anyone who likes to speak Russian may do so but they must also use the official language of the country they reside in. If they don't want to speak anything but Russian, then they can move to Russia. A lot of Russians speak English. Should America "protect" them from Russia?
There is a video circulating online of a russian tourist in Vietnam, demanding the local Vietnamese to speak to them in russian, and then going into full rage coz that poor Vietnamese person couldn't speak russian, the poor fella didn't even know English. The level of entitlement is just......
28:50 Obviously has never been to Germany. If you're at a random Döner place chances are a regular sipping tea at a table is going to banter, in Turkish, with the guy preparing your Döner, the whole time. It is a different thing though if it's the language of immigrants, or of occupiers. The "I feel persecuted" portion of the Russian population completely seems to ignore the "I feel threatened" side of the Latvian one: Just because *you* didn't do anything wrong and are peacefully living your life doesn't mean that there's not a responsibility to not put people unnecessarily at unease. Maybe a guilt vs. responsibility type dialogue would be helpful. Russian songs in public? On the one hand, there should be nothing wrong with playing say Zemfira or DDT, on the contrary. On the other hand, can you expect random Latvians to know that it's not Shaman? As to Quebec: Let's just say that the French put "STOP" on their stop signs, not "ARRET".
This issue concerns a specific group of people who are mostly Russian (russian-speakers in this group identify as russians, even if passport says belarussian) and came to Latvia as occupiers during the Soviet era. As former 'conquerors,' they hold the belief that the local population should learn the language of the conquerors, which was the norm during Soviet times. In their minds, the empire still lives, and they firmly believe they have the right not to know the language of the country in which they reside. Instead, they expect everyone else to learn Russian to serve them, as their entire existence seems to hinge on Latvians knowing Russian, because it was pushed on us during Soviet times. However, with each passing year, fewer and fewer Latvians speak Russian, because, for us, it is a foreign language, we don't use, it's not our language, not our culture. Yet these russians can’t even buy bread in a shop unless someone understands Russian there. They can’t open a bank account unless there’s a Russian-speaking employee to assist them. They do not want to learn Latvian language even for their own benefit. For example, to call the police or go to the doctor. In any other country that has not spent 50 years under occupation, such behaviour would be unacceptable and people would laugh at such demands. Latvians have simply had enough of this. Because of these people, we are passively forced to learn Russian; otherwise, older employers might not hire us. The excuse for the Russian language requirement is always the same-we have Russians who don’t speak Latvian, so you must learn Russian to serve them. When this privilege is denied, they label it as 'nationalism, fascism, humiliation, discrimination.' Generations are changing & employers are getting younger & remove this kind of request tho. We have a lot of trauma from Soviet times, and it takes time to pick up the pieces, but we have to move on. We can’t do that if the occupiers are still privileged. They basecly thinks there 3 groups of people Latvians, minorities & russians as a seperate group with their own special threatmet & privilegies. We think otherwise. We have other ethnicities living here as well, and there are no such issues with them. They speak their own languages, listen to their own music, and celebrate their own festivals, all without demanding that the entire country learn their language or embrace their culture if you''e not part of it. They celebrate their culture, share it but do not push their culture on others. Unlike Russian speakers, Latvians have no other country to call home. All we want is to live here in peace and speak Latvian, the language of our own land. If you want to speak any other language-please do, but don’t expect us to know it. This is the same unwriten law every single country has. Unfortunately, the only group that doesn’t seem to understand this is Russians.
Such a shame that, of all people from Daugavpils, they chose to interview two of the most politically promiscuous and self-interested. Next time please check the Daugavpils Fortress visitor centre. The folks working there will not only _not_ try to push their own political agenda through your video, but will also have a much better understanding of the political landscape in the region, and as an added bonus will also tell you about the history of the town :)
what begin? the tensions between independent Latvia and "local russians"- majority of who arrived during soviet occupation and their descendants srated already in 1991 but the numbers (nominal and proporton) of russians is decreasing and in 2-3 decades will be even less, so very unlikely that anything like recent Crimea events will happen in Latvia.
@@rh7018 till green man appears and all population vote for independence? Are latvian want to go to war in this case? Ukrnaian says - no. And there are many reasons for it - like for example Ukraine lost most of itis economy in such war right now and ask for money to survive.
I find it so bizzare hearing Pitkeviča mumble about feeling discriminated, when I as a Latvian, can go out for a walk in Rīga, and 95% of the speech i hear, is Russian.
Not 95% but certainly 75%. Ironically 80% of ethnic Latvians over the age of 60 in Riga have less Latvian language skills than 95% of ethnic Russians under the age of 35!
@@MagicNash89 The source is any and every person who lived in Riga before 1989. Ethnic Latvians in Riga spoke Russian because Latvian was considered the language of illiterate villagers and uneducated people.
I was born in ruzzia my first language is ruzzian, but I'm Lithuanian, my ancestors were Lithuanian who were deported to Siberia. I never felt like I was living in a different country or feel like I'm unwanted, I speak Lithuanian passed my exams. Easy as that, I have no problems learning a language, even when I did not know about my families tree.
The 3 Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were annexed by the Russians in 1940 because it was one of the conditions to conclude a non-aggression pact with the Nazis in 1939. Poland was also part of that. Eastern Poland was occupied and 20,000 Polish nobles and officers were murdered at Katin in Poland by the Russians. And they did the same with the Baltic states. All politicians and officers were taken to camps in Russia. Now we get the same as with Ukraine, the Russian separatists are starting to stir. Expel everyone from the country the only solution.
We have had attacks on the Museum of occupation, hateful attacks targeting Latvians and Ukrainians, increase in spy's that get caught flying drones or taking pictures etc.
Latgale is the only region which has a distinct flag of the main regions - it's quite popular and well known and can be used to push separatism ideas in future.
@@arnoldssurins7016 have u asked who is pushing idea of Latgale as it's own state? I'll give u a hint - people that dont speak latgalian but reside in cities like Rezekne and Daugavpils. The ones that thought "Kopā Latvijai" is good name for party from Latgale (which translated from latgalian means "in a grave for Latvia").
@@snonsense6295 As a person from Daugavpils it's also interesting to see that even Russians living outside of the two big cities in Latgale have completely different opinions, this is probably because the Russians in the smaller cities and country side are descendents of the Russian empire or polish Lithuanian comenwealth times.
@@arnoldssurins7016 Actually, Selians and Livonians also have their own flags. And the only "Latgalians" who'd want their own state are those who can't speak Latgalian (and Latvian, wink wink).
15:30 Olga's poor russian seniors the rights of whom she fights for are holding Russian federation pasports and vote for Putin in elections in Russia. So no no noone of them is responsible for war un Ukraine😂
Informative video. Makes me wonder how differently things would be had the Baltic states not had such a unhuman like neighbor. This video probably wouldn’t even exist as Latvia is a Northern European country and it’s economy would probably be as good as it’s Nordic and Scandinavian neighbors. What a shame..
@@karkevicius Calling Russia unhuman is really not fair. The government and the people should be divided, in every country there are bad and good people
I was born and raised and lived 35 years of my life in Daugavpils. I haven't even clicked the play button, I already know what this movie is all about. To me personally it makes near unbearable to live in my own hometown (which I don't anymore, for past three years I live in Varna, Bulgaria).
As a Russian-speaking Latvian I must say we do get discriminated a lot: based on our names, surnames. You must run an extra mile if you're willing to work at government, police, etc.
As a Latvian I also dont really support pushing those Russian elders so harsh... whatever are their views,they are human and they lived here for all their lives... This is goverments fault that they did not do anything in 30 years to limit Russian language... I mean look at Estonia, since 90 they did put a lot of effort.... Here in Latvia only when Russia went into Ukraine our ''goverment'' started to take action..... So now you can't expect an old person learn something like this... That is not how we as human race should be.... And changes coudn't be done before the war in Ukraine because politics in Latvia are 110% affected by Russia...
I understand your sentiment, but we need to acknowledge that living in Latvia means respecting its official language and culture. Latvian has been the official language for decades, and there's no excuse for not learning it, especially when resources and opportunities to do so have always been available. Sympathy for the elderly doesn't change the fact that integration into society is a responsibility, and knowing the language is a basic part of that.
Olga, girrrrl have you seen the state language exam?🤣 It's kindergarten level, bare minimum, no one asks them to pass a C1 native speaker level exam with an essay. Pattern up, it's embarrassing!
English speaking Canadians were never "forbidden" to speak English in Quebec. In fact in the 70's, English was the first language in a part of downtown Montreal! I once asked my mon why she spoke English in the stores during a shopping trip in Montreal! She did not answer and told me to be quiet!
It’s quite alarming how tone death is the leader of Harmony party. Her blindness to historical trauma Latvians suffered from the hands of Russian is deliberately obtuse.
I am from a spanish speaking country and for me it is very simple. Spanish is our language and if people wanna speak other language well..they can do it at home. But they have to speak spanish..In my country, Argentina, there are tens of thousands of russian migrants now and they wouldnt dare to ask to speak russian here because they know we wouldnt let them. Imagine latvians with their history..In Latvia you speak latvian, very simple. If you dont like it, go back to Russia
@@juantorres-dj3fn mate,the conquistadors were ilegal emigrants who were brought by wind in their dingies on south american shores.Normally,as guests you should have had to learn the language of the indigenous populations:aztecs,maya,etc.This way ,your comment would have had some sense.
@@catalincarceanu7991 Who told You there are people who don't or can't speak native languages?? In all countries Those languages are legally protected and in many have the same legal status as spanish. Anyone can speak them if they want to or can..Unfortunetely, in most of the continent there are not many indigenous people left (except in México, Perú and Bolivia) because they died of imported diseases or were extrrminated some centuries ago.
we still have more RUS radio stations, than Latvian. We still translate all comercials in RUS and they still keep whining about minority rights. Living here for decades and dreaming about great Russia is kind a fucked up
As a Tatar, who actually have faced REAL discrimination (a discrimination which came from the russians), I simply can't understand what the russians in Latvia are complaining about. Has the Latvian police ever thrown anyone in prison for saying a word in russian? No. But such things have happened to my relatives in Tatarstan (which is currently still under russian occupation).
Sad our secret services are russified, Olga should be jailed for lying and spreading propoganda. No one banned Russian language, everyone can speak Russian, and we have Russian dance clubs with Russian music, Galkin from Russia makes concerts here, and many other Russian artists. And sadly there will be people who will think that Olga is telling truth.
"We should be able to speak Russian, in our own homes." That should tell you everything. Why is this woman concerned with her privacy being breached? Russian isn't outlawed......almost like, she's applying what Russia does to it's citizens, in Latvia. Bit sketch, js. 17:58
There's a lot of people who will try to claim that what Latvia is doing is just rusophobic. But it's very clear that the people who are at risk from these laws are not "people who are of Russian descent, but who respect the Latvia's ethnic distinction from Russia, it's right to have territorial integrity, and recognise the proven history of atrocity against Latvians that led there to be so many Russians in their territory". The laws are basic legal protections that almost every country has in terms of proving your citizenship, from USA to China to Chile to anywhere, almost every country expects a basic level of language, law and respect. No one is banned from speaking Russian, they're simply asked to ALSO learn the native language of the country. And again, if the excuse is that there shouldn't be a native language, it's provable that the native language and the natives of this area will Latvian, and that the Russians are people who took the land a few generations back from the natives after committing massive slaughters against them. The bare minimum respect you could do if you want to live on the land that your grandfather or great grandfather stole from a murdered Latvian is to learn their language. The only people at risk from these sorts of laws are the people who intentionally choose to Russify themselves and others around them, to say that "the territory of Latvia belongs to Russia and will be annexed" and want to use this as an excuse to allow Russia to invade Latvia.
I don't understand why ethnic Russians want to stay in the Baltic States if Russia is so fantastic in their eyes. Russia is so geographically close and is apparently a 'superpower', so why not move back there to your prosperous homeland? The Baltic States are small in population and deserve their own identity in the safety of their own countries. There is no legitimate counterargument here
I can give you an explanation, as I live in a highly Sovietized city in Ukraine (countryside = almost all Ukrainian, city = about 1/3 Russians). The Russians here, like in Latvia, came in the wake of the USSR killing and deporting lots of the natives. They could only trust loyal Russians to control the locals, so brought many in, mostly from Siberia here. I think this is partly because coming to a fairly well-developed part of Ukraine would seem like a great reward to a poor Siberian, who would now have the power of life and death over the locals, too. Whereas, someone from St. Petersburg would not be so impressed. Their descendants today hate Ukraine. They hate the Ukrainian language and refuse to speak it, even if they had to learn it for school. Why do they not go back to Russia???? Because, if they go back to Russia, they will be ordinary people. Maybe even poor. But, if they stay here (or in Latvia, Moldova, etc.), and stay loyal to Mother Russia, then, maybe, one day soon, they will get to be the masters again; the bosses over everyone, like they were before. Why be a servant in your own house, when you can be a master over somebody else's???
Easily. They watch Russian TV and are fed by Russian propaganda on a daily basis. They idealise Russia, because they don't face problems which are faced by Russians living in Russia in addition.
Exactly. Send em all back to Putin.
@@WangMingGe It sounds like colonization. A poor justification for invading another’s country.
The same as Hawaiians will be not to blame if they integrate in to US society or white people who move to Hawaii and when in the future Hawaii will get independence from colonial overlord (USA) this pops (or their kids or grandkids) may start protesting and crying about how cool it was to be part of US. Even if relations with motherland (US in this case) for locals who they live amongst where of pure colonial domination and 0 consentual
That how empires always worked cmon
Аs an ethnic Russian I disagree with the Russians in Latvia who strike a victim pose. Latvia was the most cultured country in the Baltics before the 1940 invasion. And as such Latvia suffered the most there. Russians were very diligent in destroying every thread in the fabrique of Latvian society. Singing was the only form of protest left to Latvians. And everything they did they did with dignity. This is my childhood recollection from the 1970s. Repeat: Russians are not the victims there!
thank you 🙏
Well said.
@@DARDA360 💯 You're absolutely right.
Hope you have a great life bro
As Latvian I agree on 100%
They cry about everything yet enjoy the benefits we Latvians worked hard to achieve.Nobody is holding them here 😂
Visited Latvia two years ago, was invited to celebrate sommer solstice by Latvians, had a great time. Beautiful country, nice people, I wish you all the best from Switzerland.
I'm from Vilnius, and one night in a bar I met a group of Latvians, great people, basically the first thing that we talked about was the Baltic way. It was heart warming. Latvians are great! Braliukai!
Braliukai! Zirga galvas the best!
I was stolen in Vilnius. that's as irrelevant as your comment
Wow, big achievement when people just held hands
Thanks for the completely irrelevant anecdote, i guess.
@@riskinhos did you mean robbed?
As an American who lives on the west coast I have to say that I am very far from Latvia geographically. However, I grew up just down the road from a Latvian church that twice a year would have sales of things like plants and baked goods to help fund them. My mother and I would go there frequently and they were always very nice people. Since the war in Ukraine started, I wanted to learn more about Eastern Europe at the very least just to stay informed about current events. I support Latvia and the Baltic states when it comes to staying independent from Russia! Stay safe guys!
Russia is not going to do anything bad to Latvia, or the Baltic States. The video is pure hyperbole. If anything, Russia will try to take in the Russians that want to exit Latvia.
@@nightelfuser just like they didn't do anything bad to Ukraine in 2014, it was all separatist locals, right? Daugavpils is prime candidate, and make no mistake, it is just a matter of time, probably 5 years or so after war in Ukraine freezes, that the same thing will happen here despite being NATO country, and NATO believes in allowing invasion and then maybe taking back, that was the initial strategy
and western investment money understands the situation well, and will not risk capital here, which opens up the region to kremlin influence via lots of intermediaries, that is the basic mechanism, and if the sovereign country tries to do something about it - invade, protect russians, save them from discrimination etc
@@dsfs17987 Ukraine is a completely different situation.
@@nightelfuser if you're referring to NATO, then you forget the not so long ago in a summit it was revealed that they will be defensive at best, in essence, they will allow russia to invade, and scenario seems very similar to what is happening in Ukraine, there won't be any large scale attack on russian soil obviously, and why waste valuable western military lives who don't even know what Daugavpils is?
the hybrid war on EU isn't just for entertainment, the bigger picture is Putin trying to take back what Soviet Union had, and more, if you don't see it, then you wear the same pink glasses that western sellout flip flop politicians wore for 20 years while Putin was building up to these events
@@nightelfuserno it’s not, when Russia claimed Ukrainian land as rightful, they used old imperial and soviet borders, those borders also include Latvia and the Baltics.
Russia has no place in Latvia. People who feel otherwise can go to Russia
The Golytsyn family who ruled Latvia since 15th century were literally Russian. Russians controled Latvia more than Latvians controled themselves.
Do u in America, or I in Australia, or anywhere in the world for that matter 😮
Why are POOR everyday (LATVIAN'S) cos that's what they are and have been for the last 60 years.
Man I hate this war more than any other previous wars genocides what ever u wanna call it.😢 I'm from the Balkan's mate where depending on your religion could have depended on you seeing the sunrise tomorrow
WE ARE ONE PEOPLE ❤️ DIVIDED BY RELIGIOUS BELIEFS IN THE BALKANS. Unfortunately they are the same people Russian/Ukrainian call them either honestly 🙄 the war must stop we are killing OURSELVES 70 YEARS AGO WE FOUGHT SIDE BY SIDE HAND IN HAND ✋️
WE ARE SLAV'S A PEOPLE THAT USED TO HAVE PRIDE COMPASSION AND HOSPITALITY WE LOOK LIKE DAM SAVAGES NO BETTER THAN PUTIN
60 Year olds kicked out of somewhere they probably hoped to one day be buried PROUDLY AS A LATVIAN OF Russian decent.
What if it was your Grandfather or grandmother? 🇸🇮 S❤nia Slovenia
@@und3rcut535 Ok and? This is not 15th century anymore. Mongolia should also have parts of Russia
@@und3rcut535 15th century? Dude we have the year 2024.
@@hymen2393 guys I think my comment is a bit misleading and misunderstood. The point I was trying to make was some of the founders of modern Russia were from Latvia so Russification did not even started with soviets because there were a lot of Russians already in Latvia many centuries ago and many of the most prominent Noble families hailed from Baltics in general. Latvia also had German nobles as well. I know we are not in 15th century but slavs existed in modern day borders in Latvia much more than some people would like to admit.
So basically, Putin has made it hard for russians to live in the EU. They should blame him for their integration issues
Why Putin wtf??? Hmmm we are GODS children or people of God
How Did SOME of us get so dam nasty
We should what BLAME the Russian people for putins calls🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶
Nope, blame him for what he did, which was a war.
This ain't putin's war.
Russians never have wanted to integrate in Latvia.
@@lloydgush It is Putin's war. Putin and his hardliners. And he is hoping to sow integration issues elsewhere so he can have an excuse to expand these wars elsewhere. Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Serbia. The country leaders are being strong-armed into following Putin's commands, or Putin may order an invasion to "protect Russians"
@@lloydgush It seems like it is Putin’s war, unless you support it.
I,m seventy and regularly eat Latvian oatmeal and Latvian corn flakes!! I live in Japan and those products are reliably available. I got cornered by a Russian from the old East Germany. He gave me a headache with all his talking points and Russian propaganda!!
Propagandists can be like that everywhere! Sorry you experienced it even in Japan.
Do you know Masaki Nakagawa? He is Japanese who speaks and sings in Latvian!
Where can I buy Latvian food in Japan? I live there too.
@@SurfinScientist I buy stuff at Goumu super market. Just oatmeal and corn flakes.
@@Latvian07 no I don,t.
They don’t remember Latvian language because they never bothered to learn. They moved in Latvia to occupy.
And to steal Latvian jobs and to live in their houses, exactly. Russians were practically born to make life of Latvians suffer.
Tell same to British retirees living in France and Spain and not speaking the local language 😂 bloody occupants, should have been sent back home after the Brexit 😂😂
The part with Olga Petkeviča (around 9min of the vid) was 'funny'- asking for the right to speak Russian in private lives (listening to music and so on), completely ignoring the fact that NO ONE is prohibiting her to do that, and NO ONE is planning to prohibit that. I grew up with Russian as my 2nd language. I have no problem speaking it. But the parasitic nature of Russians regarding their holy grail of 'keeping the tensions high' just shows the true (ruscist) nature of people like the mentioned Olga Petkeviča.
I would like to ask her, how would Russian people would feel about a community of Latvians wanting to speak Latvian , listen to Latvian music and follow Latvian holidays, while living in Russia? Would Russia let them?
@@Eck02 Speaking from Ukraine, we know how they feel about Ukrainians. They don't even like when Ukrainians speak Ukrainian, follow Ukrainian holidays, and listen to Ukrainian music in UKRAINE, let alone in Russia.
Russians just can't stop being Russian everywhere and anywhere.
'Parasites', the perfect descriptor!
There is only one explanation for this: she is an agent of influence and contributes to the Kremlin's political agenda
16:07 Olga didn’t reply how exactly is she discriminated from legal and legit perspective.
I’m a Russian speaker from Latvia and I never been discriminated even in periods of my teenage age when I was brainwashed by Russian propaganda and for example would reply Latvian store assistant Russian in the shop even if I could speak good Latvian, but I felt I had to justify that we have to speak Russian just because that what I’ve heard on TV and from all these prorussian Latvian parties.
Only now I understand how awful was my behaviour and how bad I made Latvian people feel in their own country….
Welcome to the other side!
People like you, who in one way or another have come out of this cult of hating Latvia and Latvians, are shaping our common future. And I am always happy to hear about such people and their stories. We don't have to agree with each other on everything, we can compromise and agree to disagree, the main thing is that we are finally able to talk to each other! I also see new russian-orgin people coming into politics too, who is neither pro-russian or advocate for two community sociality as these pro-russian parties do.
That's an amazing thing to see!
olga petkevica forgot to say that those 60+ years old ruzzians were only 30+years old in 1990ies. Those ruzzis just hate Latvia and its language (even calling our language "sobachiy jazik" (dog's language)) and demand to speak with them only ruzzian. How should we treat them? Should we respect them? Mostly they read, watch, hear ruzzian propaganda and are not interested in local news media. Most of ruzzian speaking politicians won't admit that ruzzia is aggressor, won't admit that Crimea is Ukrainian and so on...
These kinds of Russians are the settler colonialists who will invite Putin in to Latvia.
Russians, russian*
Fighting chauvinism with chauvinism is surely a reliable tactic that has never backfired, right?
@@mihanich Latvia is not Russia but was subjected to Russian colonialism. To twist words to mean things they don't mean is part of Russian propaganda.
@@archs182 yes and nowadays the behaviour of most of them are not very far from Putinskije babushki patrol.
Is it normal, that I, as a native Latvian, felt discriminated by Russian speakers in Latvia? Russians should look into mirror and stop damaging Latvia further!
same things in Kazakhstan, they discriminate Kazakhs in our own country, and call us Nazis, that's their favorite word
@@Xxxray Same thing here, although they prefer to use 'fascist' here. Ironically if you examine the actual political beliefs of those same people shouting 'fascist', you can see that they match that description far better than anyone they shout it at.
It was us finns travelling Jurmala before Covid. Hub went to bar to watch Netherlands- Russia football. Hurrying Netherlands goal he got offended. Latvian bartender advised to take off, but there was no time. Fight went on in the front of pub. He fought his way off from several Russian speakers bunching n kicking. Otherwise trip was just fine. I believe we’re returning when.. And visited the KGB museum. Older Russian speaking tax driver told us not to believe what they’d tell us 🙄
@ugaboj
That's why they're called "shizofascists" in anglosphere and the less implicating "rashists" by other Slavs. It's part of their hybrid war.
@kat8992
Yey, you visited my city, just to see what Russian supremacist chauwinist mentality looks like trough violence. Very welcome, Jūrmala is among most russified of places, but i still love it. I missed that fight and didn't hear about it in the news (likely i was not in Latvia, returned here just before Covid time). It's simple mentality. To compare it to Latvian one: Slovenia played Latvia (though they lost badly) this week and i saw large groups of Slovenian tourists dressed in national hockey attire roaming the streets of Riga. Nobody was beaten up, they looked comfortable here. For contrast, there was a staple tradition in Jūrmala (i guess Rīga too) for groups of Russians from Russian schools to arrange or instigate fights with Latvian schools. Every time there was some school disco or other late gathering, there was a possibility of groups from Russian schools turning up and looking for a brawl or to beat up someone from a Latvian school (rarely other way around). Police presence near schools was not common then, not even for events like that. Thankfully this tradition ended after the '90s.
If I'm a native English speaker and move to China I would not expect China to just change their government institutions to my language. You live in Latvia, you should speak Latvian in public and government institutions
See, the problem is a belief held by almost all Russians, even those who dislike Putin (this attitude dates to Czarist times, and has nothing to do with Putin per se). They will not usually SAY this, because they know it would look bad, but, their attitudes imply this and make it obvious this is what they believe: they believe that these countries are not real countries. Of course, no Russian expects China to accomodate English people, because China is a country. But, to Russians, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Moldova etc. are all Russian provinces; places which belong to Russia where Russian domination is the assumed natural order of life.
Starmer expects the English to learn Arabic. You're good with that?
You have the respect to local culture, but i don’t think it is true for the majory of english speakers.
In lithuania I’ve met a lot of non-russian speaking(spanish, italian, english, french etc) native expats and in my impression, there is a bigger procent of russian speaking new expats willing to learn than these other foreigners. Especially, if the foreigner is of eu-origin, then the chance they learn lithuanian is super small.
@@MrSloikaLol, tell me where and when Starmer ever said that?
@@MrSloika I'm good with that, the UK is basically an Arab country now so you should learn Arabic to make your life easier, or just move to Australia and steal our jobs like the rest of the English people.
It's funny how your country was once on top of the world and now you all have to migrate to make a decent living. UK is a failed nation 🤣
Listening to the "Saskaņa" party representative was just unbearable.. nobody wants to make speaking russian at home illegal, we just want all people to know basic, VERY BASIC Latvian. I feel like she doesnt have a malicious intent, she just lives in the Daugavpils bubble
In daugavpils you have to speak Russian. It's the Russian city now. Before the war it used to be a Jewish and latvian city of course, after war it all changed. As a Latvian I rececently traveled to daugavpils and used many opportunities there to practice Russian and I could do quite well.
Of course nobody will ban speaking russian between relatives, friends and so on. BUT because of these "non-malicious" intentions like olga petkevica proclaims, russian language gets bigger influence for example in labor market. Because of these (d*mb) old ruzzians who couldn't learn a thing in Latvian since 1990ies when they were 20-40 years old, younger generation has to know russian language if you want to work public service, cafes, restaurants et cetera. As it was said in this video, young people don't know russian or know it very poorly. And because of that they will have trouble finding job. And that's a big problem here in Latvia.
every time I have been in Daugavpils I spoke Latvian. They had to practice Latvian 😄 Mostly there were no problems with younger people. I believe that my russian is good enough to have conversation with someone even I have never learned it at school, but I don't use it daily and if someone speaks to me in russian I asked them politely "Kā lūdzu?"
agree she told only majority old people, but they were living in Latvia 30+ years they had opportunity to learn it at basic level for sure
What is so unbearable? Everybody has his/her opinion, but I mostly agree with her.
This was absolutely fascinating.
I’ve had no particular interest or knowledge in Latvia’s situation before this, but this documentary painted a vivid picture of it, very detailed, very thoughtful interviews, and insight into the Mother Russia mindset…
From Russians who won’t accept that they’re living in Latvia now, and no longer the Soviet Union.
5 stars to everyone who worked on this production. Absolutely brilliant.
Mexican-American here. It's very simple. If "Russians" want to live and stay in Latvia, learn to be more Latvian. Embrace the country you live in, otherwise go back to be with like-minded people. My parents immigrated to America from Mexico, but regardless of their reasons, political, economical, religious, etc, they raised their children to be AMERICAN. We fly the American flag and sing the American National Anthem. I am an American. Now, we can never forget where we came from, so of course we speak Spanish too and acknowledge our Mexican heritage, thankful to God for who we are, but we are MORE thankful for having a better life in the country that gave us an opportunity to be something better. I would never "go back" to Mexico because I am not from there, so I don't understand how people all across the world can go to another country and not even try to assimilate but instead have the audacity to demand the people there embrace THEIR foreign identity. Baffles my mind so bad.
great point! Of course pay homage and preserve your own culture but remember to respect the norms, customs, and culture of your host country.
For many people, in other situations, they didnt go to the other country. But others changed who rules the land above their heads.
Let's demand Hawaiian language and assimilation from the billionaires who moved to Hawaii too, please.
Your parents have raised you as American, but parents of Russian people, and, more importantly, the State at the time raised them as Russians. It would be pretty much impossible to raise them as Latvian, the State would not like it. So it's hardly their fault at that point.
So the laws defended in the comments here are to haul the elderly people who passed language exams decades ago and have been living in peace and make them repass them again in their old age. Should we haul your elderly Spanish speaking relatives and make them retake the US civics tests under threat of deportation too?
@@janewright315 It's impossible to compare because they have a painful process of separation from the Russian and USSR regime/oppression, finally. And it will take very many years.
Lies, LSM, Latvian national broadcaster publishes articles in russian. You are not being discriminated, you are being asked to learn basic Latvian A2 (or is it B1).
You are accusing Russia of lies, what a shocker... who would have thought! LOL
A2 is basic but B1 is often required to be eligible for jobs
@@hell_of_helios In Latvia?? I still know people that have a job and dont speak Latvian. Often the jobs even ask to have some form of Russian language knowledge
@@aleksisvargers7494 Actually, unless you are some kind of very low-paid physical laborer, B1 or B2 is necessary for a lot of jobs. While I agree that A2 is basic, B2 is definitely not.
@@grahortarg9933 Low paid or not, bus drivers, mechanics(not low paid), cashiers, there still are people that struggle with this and are in important social fields that you cant avoid.
Sure in Daugavpils most of the employed people did speak when necessary, but there were situations, where you couldnt go through with the Nativa language
Having Russia on your border while having ethnic Russian areas in your country is a huge security risk... Good on Latvia for joining NATO as soon as they could
It is alie. Ethnicity is northern weuropa.
Language is Latvian.
Unique language.
But it was never under as much. as You think
u dont know how scary its to live next to russia yea im latvian):
bot
I'm Lithuanian if we Baltic States wouldn't have joined NATO... 100 percent we would long time ago became Russia........
Olga, if You want to live good and peaceful life in Latvia, respect Latvian basic law - our constitution - and do not force Your Russian identity and thinking upon Latvian residents.
She literally isn't. She is literally talking about existing residents- elderly people being unnecessarily jerked about all of a sudden. It sounds like the situation is the that they're not the ones just left to live in peace.
@@janewright315 OK Ivana, you've earned your potato, now crawl back under your rock.
I
@@janewright315 it does seem that fascists are trying to bring their divisive ideas to create this hostile environment for everyone.
@@janewright315she literally is
@nvdolcevita1717 ok. Explain to me how speaking at home- of any language- is forcing anything on you. This entire conversation is kindergarten level stupid. If they were speaking Hindi, English, Hebrew, Urdu, etc would you be this outraged?
Sorry, but I have met old ladies who learn how to speak English and French at a basic level in America and Canada. You are telling Mr that you are living in Latvia for 6 or 7 decades and can't say: "hello, my name is x. Can you help me find this place?" That is bs
You'll find people in Montreal who don't speak French which is a similar situation.
I'm Latvian. I live in a building in Riga with both Latvians and Russians. We respect each other and get things done together like renovating the stairwell and fixing the water pipes. Prosaic stuff that makes life better for everyone. This talk of ethnic tension is exaggerated by the media to help grubby politicians.
@@philipbirzulis5099 un kādā valodā jūs ar kaimiņiem apspriežat tos remontus?
What latvians are doing is just a common sense
Common sense would be if we would make those changes 20 years ago... doing it now and right away creates a lot of chaos and lots of problems!
I love this country and love being a part of such a small nation but that freedom is imagenary.
@@iamfrequency432 solves more problems than it creates.
Not really, disenfranchising all those "russians", made some of them turn against the Latvian state instead of a natural part of it.
A lot of problems would just not exist at all had they been allowed to keep their citizenship. They would vote and participate just like everyone else.
@@pettahify they did it in lithuania and now lithuania has a fifth column that votes against lithuania, normal human laws don’t work on russians appearantly.
@@KSfreaky also known as "oppression".
I am a Russian-speaking Latvian and simply do not understand those who live here and associate themselves as "Russians" and refuse to speak/learn Latvian language. It is ok to remember your heritage and ancestral roots, but you must respect the place where you live. It is puzzling hearing Russian-speaking minority talk about how bad it is in Latvia and yet they refuse to move to Russia. I wonder why hehe.
hehe? if people fell oprressed you dont care? next time you will be oppressed by something - lets ee what you will say!
@@sguploads9601 who is oppressed? They have an option to apply for Latvian citizenship - just learn the language and pass the exam. My grandmother did that years ago instead of moaning (unlike my grandfather, who is still going on about it but chooses to remain ignorant to local culture). People love to play the victim.
Well it’s same as people in Quebeck speaking French or in Switzerland speaking Italian. They are not immigrants or refugees there.
@@olivka7560 different countries, histories, societies.
@@olivka7560 France and Italy are not threatening their neighbors; Russia is threatening their neighbors. Other countries with a Russian population rightly have to worry about 5th columns. There isn't such a thing as an Italian or French 5th column, thus nothing to worry about.
The fact we are seeing these radical ethnic Russians and hearing their complaints tells you all you need to know. How would a similar critism be greeted in Russia.
It's just torture to learn Latvian language in Latvia. Such big discrimination.
@@yuliiar9067 😂😂😂😂
In Russia national minorities can study in their languages. Some of them have even their own states within Russian Federation with their languages being used in all aspects of life.
@@Superman-ef4nn you don't know what happened in Bashkiria with people who wanted to save their language? some of the people are now sitting in jail. 😂😂 so we can now jail Russians too if they say that in Latvia should teach also Russian? Let's goo.
@@purpplekushh yes I want that you make Russian official in Riga and Dpils just as Bashkir is official in Bashkiria. That would be fair and democratic.
And I want that Russians won't sit in jail in Latvia just because they are Russians just like Bashkirs don't sit in jail just because they are Bashkirs.
These situations are VERY similar to what existed in the Russian separatist areas of Ukraine and Georgia and Belarus. If you had asked the people in those areas if they wanted to invaded and controlled by Russia they would have said no, but there was a vocal minority that wanted exactly that. That was the excuse Putin used to invade and impose his neo-Soviet empire on those people. He absolutely will do the same everywhere that allows the Russian propaganda bubble to exist. Derusification is absolutely necessary in the public sphere.
Yes, that’s exactly the same tactic. What else they were doing calling all us Russian speakers in Latvia as “Russians” or “our Russian people” or “compatriots” or spreading misinformation that there are 45%of Russians in Latvia, while it is 45% Russian speakers and only around 22% are kind of ethnic Russians, because even a good part of these 22% still would be mixed nations.
no, derussification is the exact reason ethnic russians would rather support putin over the countries they live in. if there was no derussification, i doubt there would be such a big support for putin among these ethnic russians
I don't know anything about Georgia or Belarus, but afaik - East Ukraine got Russified _during_ the Soviet Union and not before, right?
I guess you're talking about 2014 with regards to Ukraine?
@@edmis90 east ukraine in old times was a weakly populated steppes area that didn't belong neither to russia or ukraine(well ukraine didn't really exist in that time but there still was cossack hetmanate). the main people of the east ukraine were turkic nomads. then the east ukraine started belonging to russia and it started being populated both by ukrainians and russians, but mostly ukrainians. after that there were certain demographic changes but the point i am trying to provide still stands: there is a little sense to claim it as *THE* ukrainian territory or *THE* russian territory, since the influence or some sort of "historic right" there was mixed for the both sides. so i don't see why would that be a problem for both ukrainian and russian being official languages there, regardless of what country this area would belong, which still probably should belong to ukraine, since it's the invaded side, not the invader side. even though i would rather prefer united european country that would include both ukraine, european part of russia and western and central europe. or even more based solution: get rid of all national borders. well that should be the endgoal, while the united europe should be the nearest future goal. it's a shame that this war is preventing the implementation of this goal
@@edmis90 you can just open presidential election results before 2014 in Ukraine and see which regions supported pro-Russian people, and those are exactly regions which Putin is fighting for. Ukraine will never tell whole image of what was happening in the country, country was basically split in half for many years.
At 11:00....it's not their home, though. They are Russians, proud members of a colonial occupation force, who are so proud of their identification with the imperialist invader that, even after 33 years of independent Latvia, they refuse to learn Latvian. Russia is their home and they should go back to it.
My biggest issue is not with the people above the age of 60, there is little to no point in trying to derusify those that still miss the USSR. My issue lies with the new parents teaching their kids russian as their first language while living in Latvia. Eventually those children are going to begin to resent latvians because we refuse to talk in HIS first language.
How come a place where I was born and lived all my life, my parents were born and lived all their lives, is suddenly not my home? What exactly is my home, then? Is it Moscow? Is it Siberia? Is it Voronezh, may be? How about Crimea, is Crimea my home? Also, have you LOOKED at European map? EVERYONE is a part of an occupying force couple of generations before, what should we do with them?
@@grahortarg9933 the grand majority of europeans considers colonisation and imperialism so very 1900 thinking. If you speak to russian-russians they think it is an ok thing to do though. As long russia has the means to invade other countries it always be iffy to be a russian by language and culture outside russia. Muslims who immigrated to europe and cling to there language and culture found that out too. I have lived most my life as an immigrant and never thought my host country has to acommodate me in any Form or way. I learn the language and cultural norms and keep my mouth shut regarding how they do things. It is not my right to change the way things are in countries and cultures i do not belong to. And the fun thing is, i always was very welcome, no one had issues with the foreigner living in there middle. Most people are very interested in other cultures even. As long one does not try to push ones own onto others.
@@erichbreckoff3405 that's up to you. I'm not an immigrant. It is not a country I do not belong to. It is literally my right to have a say in how my country behave, to have a say in what is norm and what isn't. I was born to this right. At least those are my feelings on the matter. Obviously, it's not up to me to decide, but I definitely have a right to have an opinion and to voice it.
@@grahortarg9933 are you sure your parents born here? before occupation Russians here was 5%. 😂
As a Latvian I can say there is close to 0 chance of any threat of separatism, it's mostly an overblown issue, there is no huge movement of ethnic Russians that would call for it or actively work for that goal, there are some disagreements on the role of Russian language in public life but also rather small chance that more nationally radical government will be elected so most likely it will stay as it is +/-... Also since the Crimea events the army and NATO have prepared exactly for this scenario to put down any separatist leanings or beginnings before they take root. Also a number of most active potential troublemakers have left the country to go to Russia or Belarus already.
As for Putin, he has to think about Ukraine first. Second, Kursk invasion by Ukraine has shown there is no real eagerness for Russians as a general public to go to war, engage in partisan movement or anything like that. Most just left the areas that Ukrainians took, leaving behind the elderly. What it has also shown is that nukes will not fly due to some action vs Russian troops on Russian soil so in case of any Russian invasion of a NATO country, NATO has free rein to destroy Russian military assets in Russia etc. with F35s and other air power, which is one aspect of war in which NATO is clearly far superior than Russia and which does not lead to many military deaths for NATO countries too. So Kursk invasion in a sense was a blessing showing Kremlin and us that there is no patriotic frenzy in Russia and there are no insane decisions coming from Kremlin.
Latvian Russians are getting older on average - old populations are not usually prone to political violence or revolts. Young people who disagree with the policies are leaving for other EU countries. Most of my local Russian friends left for Spain \ Netherlands \ Germany \ Poland \ Austria, etc.
Thank you for your opinion.
Hello from USA. Interesting to hear this discussion about language. @@stariyczedun
@@stariyczedun Why not to Russia?;)
Yes, look at the countries who got invaded. They are all non nato countries. Like Putin thinks he can undermine nato, but the reality is, if any of the baltic countries get invaded, most post sovjet are getting involved immediatly and then the rest will follow like a day after because at that point you cannot deny article 5.
That's true. Here are bunch of useful idiots. Magoriti will stand up for Latvia.
Long Live LATVIA!!! 💙💛
It will not exist in 10 years, just like usraine
EU/NATO countries always say "Diversity is our strength", what happened?
@RUclips_Enjoyerlol
Russian Imperialism undermines diversity and is therefore excluded.
@@WorldlyBudget not when the other ppl are trying to separate the areas they live in and switch the country's culture.
@RUclips_Enjoyerlol
Latvia met all such standards, hence why it is a full EU & NATO member. Funnily enough, when the russian federation tried to join NATO in the 1990s, they did not meet most of NATO's entry requirements.
Better for you to focus your attention on the Latvian & Ukrainian ethnic minorities in the russian federation and compare how their rights are protected in practice, as opposed to the facade of kremlin propaganda.
Olga Petkevisa is blatantly lying. No one is discriminating Russians. I have a lot of Russians friends and we also speak Russian, Latvian, Latgalian and in other languages. They do not want to associate themselves with Russian regime, nor Russian radicals in Latvia, they respect country in wich they are living. If You are normal person and You also respect each other and country we all are living, there isn't any problems. Russian radicals should leave for paradise in Russian Federation, if they do not like here.
I agree. Russians everywhere believe if they can’t be in complete control as imperialists, they play the victim..‘help us Putin‘ ‚invade this country which is not Russia and force Russian brutality on them‘ Latvia must stand firm.
🎯💯☘️
Olga, people of your age agree with Russian policy to take over the former Soviet Union. You are delusional to think you are been discriminated. Choose between Latvian citizenship and its rules or return to Russia if you choose not to obtain Latvian citizenship. There is no such thing as Latvian Russian. Russia has only short history in Latvian as an occupier.
so does it mean that problem is not exists if some people are shy to talk about it?
I think Olga knows exactly what she's saying to make Latvia look bad. Never heard of not being able to speak Russian in Latvia in everyday life and not being able to listen to music in Russian language. Absolute garbish.
Referring to elderly people, all their lives they had the opportunity to learn our language, but they chose not to because they doesn't respect our country. They are also more septepable to propoganda and more likely to have harming beliefs.
Good. When the guys performed in Riga, they were given a fine that they sang in Russian, is this normal in your opinion?.. 2 case, Latvia blocked all Russian sites and Yandex, is this also "freedom of speech"?
@@cute8962 Fill me in on what guys are you talking about and which sites were blocked. The context is important. Regarding blocking Yandex - do you need it here? Do you need your data on Russian Federation servers? I personally don't. Simple case of our national security.
Yo ! I'm polish living in Latvia for over 6 years. Speaking latvian fluently. Don't understand the problem here. Just learn the language. Don't understand russian and not once i felt need to learn it. Feel proud to be able to speak this beautiful and very small language !
OLGA PETKEVIČA, stop lying! nobody is stopping you from talking in russian with your family or friends. Just don't push it on latvians! if you approach me on the street or are talking to a shopkeeper, they DON'T have to reply in russian!
But you could reply in Russian right? At least you could try? Not that you have to but it's about the language practice and using the opportunity to increase confidence in using Russian. Daugavpils is a great place for that. I just recently went there and used many opportunities for practicing Russian there and did quite well
@@dreamthedream8929 if you wanna practice russian? Book a flight to russia. You'll have 140 m people to speak to.
@@dreamthedream8929 No darling! It is a perfect opportunity to practice Latvian! A Latvian is not obliged to speak russian within their own country. Just like Latvians do not expect anyone to speak Latvian outside of Latvia.
@@dreamthedream8929 and why should latvians speak russian in Latvia?
@@dreamthedream8929It's Latvia. You speak latvian or gtfo. Period
It's very strange to hear someone say that they have lived in the country for over 20 years and didn't even try to learn Latvian, and now that woman presents it as a problem for the government. No, it is only a problem for people who don't care about others and don't even try to learn the main language in the place where they live. The problem is only one: ruzzian speakers often don't acknowledge other languages and frequently get mad if you don't speak ruzzian...
Really? It's strange? It's extremely common, especially in older people. I live in a very multicultural area in the US. People from thr middle east, India, Nepal, Europe, Korea, etc. I know families from all of those countries. Without fail the elderly relatives barely speak a word of English, even in the wealthiest of families that send their kids to elite private schools here. But yeah, pretend it's just only the "rUzZiAnS"
@@janewright315 What you obviously don't want to understand that after many centuries of the Russian oppression people want to have back their OWN IDENTITY/CULTURE/TRADITIONS/LANGUAGE... You are constantly comparing USA with Latvia and completely forgotten that it's the country of the IMMIGRANTS.
*@JaneWright* You're constantly comparing the USA to Latvia obviously forgotten that America is a country of the IMMIGRANTS from around the world.
@vitalipopkhadze369 I'm responding to the US person who is applauding the policy of having an exam that would exclude and deport existing residents- especially elderly- while enjoying being an immigrant with family safe from such policy. The US may be a country of immigrants- after decimating the native population of course- but it is a sovereign nation with plenty of similar civics exam standards already in place. Your claims are irrelevant. Your comment is nothing but a feeble attempt to defend hypocrisy
*@JaneWright* You can play your funny games as long as you want it doesn't matter. And as an American citizen with duel citizenship (American/Russian) I KNOW THE LAW IN THE US. Why don't you try your "games" in Russia with a lot of ethnic groups.. Good luck..)
You forgot to mention the "decimating natives population" in Russia/USSR for CENTURIES and what become of them. How so?.. (rhetorical question)
It sounds crazy that some people would live in a country for decades, refusing to learn even the basics of a local language, just to prove the superiority of their native language and culture
no, it sounds like nazism definition.
Many European countries have official rights for minority languages. Russia has 23 official minority languages.
@@peterwilliams2152So for those 23 minorities learning Russian is not mandatory in Russia's education system? 🤔
Fairly common for Muslim immigrants in Western Europe, sadly.
@@peterwilliams2152and none of those minority languages are taught in state schools. Very few schools still have one lesson a week of a minority language, (in their specific region) and that too will be banned in the next 1-2 years. Already more than half of the local, ethnic residents no longer know their own language. It is a slow genocide of their language and culture... It is like slowly boiling the frog, that doesn't realize that it is being boiled alive coz it is being boiled slowly, so slowly, it doesn't feel the rise of temperature until it is too late.
I live in Latvia as a russian speaking foreigner for 10 years. Absolutely zero discrimination to russian speaking me. My russian speaking child went to latvian childcare where caregivers were super kind and helpful. All officials are very supportive and helpful when it comes to my very imperfect latvian. My observation is Latvia has very strong stance about history of occupation and those who publicly deny it will certainly face prosecution, by the laws. Local Russian community has very little number of those deniers and there are few politics who build their careers around calling it oppression and pretending to fight against it.
@@pvlr997 💯 Agree with you completely. The same with my relatives in Riga.
Great to have you around! 👍
Welcome to my country! May I ask- Did you move here from Russia?
'went' is keyword here. He won't be able to come in Russian school or kindergarden today.
@@Superman-ef4nn he went to latvian kindergarden, and Latvian language in school is not an issue either.
Sorry... How do these poor old people "not remember a word of Latvian" because they are sooooo old and helpless - but yet they have jobs?
Russians are always the victim.
That's not something unusual. I have troubles remembering Latvian, but I have no trouble remembering English or doing my job. I've learned English as a child and teen, so it stuck in my memory.
Yeah these old people, where were they for the last 34 years? How did thay manage to not learn a single word in that time? Pathetic people.
Latvia for Latvians!
Nazistand for Nazi!
It was a major mistake to keep the primary and secondary education taught in Russian. The transition period from Russian to Latvian in all schools should have been completed 20+ years ago. Not only it would have partially deflated the "USSR bubble", it also would have been beneficial to the Russians themselves, as without Latvian proficiency acquiring higher education and having a high-paying job is much more challenging to achieve. By following the call from Russian propaganda to "protect" their language, and with the help of Latvians who were taking an uneasy stance in this question, Russians brought discrimination upon themselves.
Petkevica's apologist stance on the 60+ aged supposedly being victims through "forced" learning of basic Latvian vocabulary and grammar is despicable. First of all, when the USSR collapsed, these people were aged 25 to 55. They have lived in Latvia for more 33 years (that is more than 12 000 days), each day passing by writings in Latvian, in the shops, on the food packaging they eat. I genuinely cannot understand how even passively they failed to acquire A2 level of Latvian. It is not like the language is completely different as well, apart from a different writing system, some vocabulary is also shared or similar. For example, I know a few hundred words in Estonian due to the language being visible on packaging and while visiting Estonia.
I know a lot of people from Latvia but most people under 30 speak latvian as a first language, if their parents are latvians. The people with Russian parents obviously speak Russian first but they need to speak latvian for school and life so in smaller cities or communes it is really latvian
In hindsight maybe but minority languages seem reasonable from a human rights perspective.
We have the same problem in Lithuania - russian kindergardens and schools. Russians are boilimg in their own soup and never learn lithuanian. They consume russian propaganda and then vote accordingly. It's a threat to national security.
Before you preach, let 's remember that Russian army troops were in the country until 1994, we joined NATO in 2004 only. There were countless number of Russia paid and just enthusiastic "experts" preaching on how gently we should handle offsprings of Russian occupants, šo they do not feel suddenly opressed.
Almost every russian representative in this video is always a victim, it's always not their fault. Those people love the victim card..
Yes. Just like Russia. The Russian state and many Russians seem to think that unless they are able to occupy a position of dominance, locally or internationally, then that makes them a victim of some kind of racist discrimination.
Remember this these Russian complaining the most are often people who have lived in Latvia for as much as 40 years. But supposedly don't know as much Latvia as a tourist who has visited Italy a couple of times knows some Italian. They were so used to a privileged status socially, economically and politically over Latvians. In 1991 they simply kept thinking in a couple of years Russia will reconquer Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia and we will be back on top, so why bother learning any Latvian. They wanted to remain loyal to Imperial Russia and not dirty themselves with the language of the inferior servant race.
If their children and even grandchildren still think the same way and STILL after spending essentially their whole life in Latvia don't speak the language, what do they expect? Well it seems reconquest by Russia and oppression of the native people of a sovereign nation state. Some people as the English say watch too much TV and believe what the see on the internet.
Bro all of them Russian Latvians they been there since 1940s so anybody who younger then 80s years old been born there .. and it’s pure discrimation going on there
@@MoneyDawgHavingShit360How's the weather at savushkina street in st. petersburg?
Dude how about the Latvians who celebrated Hitlers army coming in to “liberate” Latvia of the inferior races in the 40s? It was a majority of Latvians.
They are just nazis with a dream - while most of every Latvian company is owned by swedes anyways.
@user-oy7sp6ut1d no tf there isn't 😂 the Russian minority is consistently the problem. Again. These are Russians who willingly separated themselves from the Latvians because they genuinely believe that Latvian identity does not matter and should be subservient to Russian interests. This is LITERALLY the point as well. Russificafion works like this, and Putin goes out of his way to make sure he can weaponise Russians abroad
@@MoneyDawgHavingShit360They haven't born , they have occupied it
My work colleague is from Lithuania. He is Russian and Z. He told me he doesn`t know Lithuanian , despise being born and growing there. He learned in Russian school in Lithuania. How is this possible? Russian school inside an EU country?
This is a great film, it says as much about the mentality of oppressive Russian colonialism as it does about Latvia, and helps understand the motivations of the many nations Russia has invaded since 1991.Thank you for your contribution too.
Do you think that the EU should completely ban the Russian language? Make it illegal to speak Russian at home with your family?
@@tompeled6193stupid question.
@@RR-jz2up It's not stupid when he's outraged at a Russian uNtErMenScH school in the sUpErIoR ArYaN EU.
He is talking about someone not knowing the language of the country he grow up in. But ofcourse you would deflect that ORC @@tompeled6193
i respect the latvians and their government. in 2 or 3 generations nobody in latvia will speak russian day to day, unless being a tourist
I think you underestimate the tenacity of these people to isolate themselves from the natives. Unless they are deported, I don't think the language will vanish from Latvia.
Oh no, hardly. I noticed that even in mixed Latvian-Russian families, kids usually watch cartoons in Russian and maintain good command of the language. My daughter speaks Latvian in school but all her life outside of the school is in Russian. Latvians will sooner switch to English than local Russians stop speaking Russian.
@@stariyczedun Do you like it in Latvija?
nobody will speak latvian either...
@@stariyczedun i think this is just because Russian has 200m+ speakers and Latvian has what? 2?
Be Latvian and European or Russian. Your choice.
But if you want to be Russian, leave.
Or we have to deal with the big man because he wants them back. No matter their opinion.
Why should someone who lived in some place for 3 generations, live just because he want to belong own ethnicity, not change into some other, foreign to him? Say, hypothetically, I'm a Russian in Latvia; I was born here; my parents were born here; my grandparents were, but it also wasn't their choice to come here and they've built a home for themselves here. Now, after three generations, people have roots here, live, home - not only their home, but family home or homes, kept in the family for 80 years now, where everything reminds them of their family, of parent and grandparents, homes build with their own hands; and, of course, family graves and family connections and so on. On the contrary, there is absolutely nothing in Russia that I could call my own; no family, no home, no connections, no memories. I'm not going to move to Russia, right? We are not very mobile people in this part of the world, it goes for any ethnicity; we aren't used to move our lives around. So, moving to Russia is not a choice, it's simply not an option, a lot of people would rather die than move.
So we've established that moving is not an option, why is there even talk of ethnic/cultural change? Do you even understand that setting the question like "if you want to be an ethnicity, leave" is ethnic cleansing? "If you want to be Albanian, leave Serbia and move to Albania" - sounds good? "If you want to be Muslim or Moroccan, leave France!" "If you want to be English, leave Ireland!" - how about that? Why suddenly "if you want to be Russian, leave Latvia" sounds better? It's not as if I want to be Russian, it's who I am. When I'm thinking, I'm thinking in Russian, my culture is Russian, when I think of ethics and dilemmas I'm thinking in quotes of Tolstoy and, I don't know, Strugatskis', not in quotes of Kipling or Rajnis. What is good and what is evil is imprinted into me from my childhood, by school, soviet Russian books, soviet Russian movies; by songs and tales. How can I stop being Russian? What changes the nature of a man?
Seriously, people, you make it sound so easy. Why don't you go and solve Israeli-Palestinian problem next, if it all is so obvious?
*@Grahor Targ* Then how come your family doesn't speak their language, doesn't respect their culture/traditions, doesn't know their history?..
@@grahortarg9933russki mir is at the present an problem, right?
Afaik learning a second language is not to much to ask if one lives in an country not using ones first. And be honest, russia made very sure that having a russian population is a very high risk for an country.
And putini is not the only one who thinks this way, plenty russians in russia consider east europe theres to do as they please with. It is an very imperialistic culture since it beginnings and never changed.
@@vitalipopkhadze369 we can talk about it, but it's not the question that was raised in original post, is it? "If you want to be Russian, leave". There is nothing here about knowing the language, is it? Don't change the subject.
@@erichbreckoff3405 It's not easy to follow your points, sorry if I'll misunderstand something. Let me change the discussion a bit: "Religion-based Muslim terrorism made very sure that having a Muslim population is a very high risk for a country. Therefore, if you want to be Muslim, you have to leave Britain, France, Germany or America". Sounds okay?
Also "plenty Muslims in Arabic nations consider Europe as a place for Jihad. It's a very terroristic culture since beginnings and never changed". It may be even true, but so what? Are we to expel all Muslims from Europe?
The best part is that in Latvia there are some of young (male) Russians who seems to adore current Kremlin's policy.
If you ask them why don't they support SVO by enlisting or even just visit Russia they usually reply with silence.
Good for Latvia. If you want to live in a country that’s Russian then move to Russia! Nobody will stop you. Bye!
Good for England. If you want to live in a country that's Muslim then move to Saudi Arabia! Nobody will stop you. Bye! I'm sure you're not a hypocrite and you're good with this.
why should i move to russia if i wasn't born and nevel lived there?
@@Seraph2222 In Latvia Russians do, many of them are fluent, some of them do not speak Russian anymore, speaking Latvian as the first language. I think it is about the same in Estonia and Lithuania.
Good for Switzerland. If you want to live in a country that's French then move to France!
Then learn the language of the country you live in@@jeanivanjohnson
Russian lady talking about fairness!
Jesus!
Two wrongs do right
And what did thous "old" people did to Latvians and Latvia in Soviet time? Was it fair? And what have they being doing all these years, since 90ties?
they thought that Baltic States regaining independence is just a temporary thing.
Exactly, some of my relatives were deported to Siberia. Parents had to learn Russian in school & pressured to be involved in Pioneers as children to be indoctrinated in Soviet ways. They tried to destroy Latvian culture & this woman whines about being discriminated against! There is no legislation against her speaking Russian amongst her family/friends. She blatantly lies.
Latvia: a looming threat of Russian separatism [DOCUMENTARY] 1037am 11.9.24 those settlers from slavic regions during soviet era... it is a simple and obvious question to ask: how much of a choice did they have re: being uprooted and moved to other regions of europe?
I'm an Englishman and I say Latvia for the Latvians. It's so important not to lose your culture, it is more precious than gold.
@@silverbullet2008bb Comments on ‘Latvia: a looming threat of Russian separatism [DOCUMENTARY]’ 2339pm 29.9.24 ah, ok. so i can kick those toadies out my childhood home as i didnt give permission for them to be there and i didnt hand over the keys to the home to them...? i had no say in the matter... people who allegedly know better decided that...
Latvia has to be derussified.
Where are you from?
THOSE OLD 60 YEARS russian speaking people 34 years ago was 26 years old in 1990, they had 34 years to learn latvian language language of country where are you living. ( and last election data of russian election that those russians who lived here 80% was woting for putin .. so OLGA is protecting fans of Putin!
Here in Finland we have 2 official languages; Finnish and Swedish. It mostly works fine but there are extreme differences vis a vis Russian in Latvia.
Although Swedish was the language of the coloniser, Sweden hasn’t controlled any part of Finland for over 200 years, they’ve rarely interfered in internal politics and have never attempted to drive a wedge between Finnish and Swedish speakers through propaganda.
In Latvia, the history is much more recent and rawer. Russia consistently tries to interfere in politics and uses its propaganda to create an oppression narrative in Russian speakers.
If Russia had tried to act like a ‘normal’ country rather than as a temporarily displaced colonial master, the Latvian state may have been more open to equalising language rights but the Russian state attitude is to act like a vindictive jilted wife beater never to accept the choices of their former ‘partners’ (or possessions as they see it).
It makes for an intolerable situation which any proudly independent nation cannot hope to accommodate given that it is bound to lead to further degradation of their culture. Maybe someday Russia will grow up as a nation but I’m not holding my breath.
Swedes are no more colonizers of the natives than the finno-ugrics. Neither one of the groups are native. Finnish speakers arrived in Finland 1800 years ago, Swedish 1200. There were natives there for thousands of years longer.
Finland has been part of russian empire almost 200 years,why no one speak russian there?
@@catalincarceanu7991The time of Russian rule lasted only about a hundred years and Finland had autonomy during that time. When the Russians started policies of undermining the autonomy it was called russification and was really unpopular. These short periods of time became known as the times of oppression and they provoced Finnish nationalism and independence activism, up to and including armed struggle. This culminated in the so called jaeger movement during the first world war and finally independent statehood as the Russian empire collapsed.
Ever since Finland has been an independent, sovereign country. There still is a Russian minority, but much smaller and less problematic than those in the Baltic countries.
@@herptek did Finland enjoyed the same authonomy under Swedish rule?
@@catalincarceanu7991 No. The official bilingualism of the state derives from conditions that far past, when Swedish was the only official language and Finnish the folk language. There is a more influential Swedish-speaking minority because of that and some areas of the country are still basically run in Swedish. As Finnish language has gotten the same official status, most Finns have no regular use for Swedish language and for most it has fallen out of use in most other than official contexts mandated by law.
It is important to highlight that Russia initiated the Russification of the Baltic region and the South Caucasus during the era of the Russian Empire. The Russian Empire was a colonial state, as was its successor, the Soviet Union, both of which engaged in colonialism to benefit Russia while oppressing or deporting the local population. Russia aimed to transform Riga, the capital of Latvia, into a Russian city, relegating the Latvian language to the status of a peasant language. Notably, Russia successfully implemented similar policies in Belarus. For Russia, language has been a key instrument of Russification, and the Kremlin continues to use language effectively in its foreign policy to assert control over parts of other countries' territories.
As a Georgian, I understand this better than many others. The Russian government believed, and still believes, that others should learn Russian instead of their native languages, such as Latvian. If Russians want to be citizens of Latvia, they should learn Latvian and integrate into Latvian society. Why should Latvians tolerate agents of Russian influence in their country? They shouldn't, and they don't. I wish Latvia continued success in resisting such influences.
For someone like me, an American expat, recently arrived here in Latvia to teach English at the university and community levels, this video is helpful to understand the cultural dynamics here. Thank you.
Ay, learn latvian while you're here. We don't like our language getting anglicized either
please also read the comments under this video so you can get even an even better insight into what the Latvians think about some aspects of this video :)
@@krumuvecis based latvian anti-imperialist
As a Latvian, this is a topic that really stirs emotions for me and many people I know. In Riga, we often encounter very prideful Russian speakers, and the level of aggression we face for not responding to or understanding a language that isn't even an official language here is truly unsettling
Less Russians in Vilnius, yet we have the same phenomenon.
I am over 65 and I remember what I had for breakfast. :)
Full English?
Lol 66 is point on no return opps who said that 😂😂😂
Same here and I'm 70.
However unlike Russians I don't have Vodka for breakfast.
@@geeboom i'd definitely prefer a glass of vodka to beans on toast on marmite.
Nobody is stopping anybody from speaking their own language, but if the language isn't the official language of the country there is no need to teach it in schools no matter what the mother tongue of the person is or how large the minority speaking the language is. Same goes for offering services: no human right says that you deserve service in your own language that isn't the official language in the country you live in.
There are EU countries which official policies are completely different to what you describe here. French-style "jacobin" language policy vs Belgian one where minorities can study in their own languages.
@@stariyczedun my favorite excuses of why kids that were born after regaining independence dont know latvian - because they didnt have enough practice of it. One of most interesting sideeffects is that latvian youth that dont have russian language skills are more at disadvantage in job market than ethnic russian youth that dont know latvian. My favorite saying from ethnic russian in Latvia saying that knowing languages is "wealth" (funny it's treasure/wealth only when latvians are demanded to learn russian not when russians need to learn latvian). Another one "beautiful" thought from ethnic russians -latvian language is dog language and that is humiliating to learn it.
so linguistic minorities just...shouldn't exist? should French be banned in Quebec? or Basque in Spain?
@CrapeCraft You do understand that in your analogy, Latvia is Quebec, right?
@@CrapeCraft russians are not linguistic minority - they have 140 million population country while latvians in the world are ~1.5million. Latvians are linguistic minority.
If they cannot talk Latvian while living in Latvia, then the Latvia is not their home !
To someone used to privileges, equality feels like persecution/discrimination. The old ethnic Russians in Latvia vote with nostalgia for the USSR, but against their own interests... This is why they are still a problem.
“Let us speak Russian, let us listen to Russian songs in public, let us celebrate Russian holidays - why not?” asks Olga Petkeviča. A look at Russia’s colonial history and Latvia’s experiences with Russians could answer her question … 🤔
Send Olga back to russia
Agree. Her comments made my blood boil
I'm grateful that this was presented in English.
As an American, all my life I heard of the captive nations of Latvia, Estonia, and Lituania. That were invaded by the Soviet Union. Thousands of them were deported to Siberia just because Stalin considered them a threat to his reign of terror. Whole families were torn from their beloved lands and sent east. Many died, all of them suffered torture, cold, beatings, and starvations None of them knew why Stalin was doing this to them. So I am glad that at last, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania have their independence restored at last, and are no longer captive to the whims of what ever dictator rules in Moscow. Tiny Finland would also have been one of the captive nations, but they fought so hard for their independence that even though they lost a big part of their lands to Russia, the Russians gave up trying to take all of Finland. Anyone who lives in one of these long suffering nations should be proud to learn the language, culture, and become a citizen, now that at last they are free of Moscow.
you are not a native american ,you are a european refugee who got in a dingy on american shores...
"It's not fair to make old people take the language exam." They had DECADES to learn. Time to move them back to their ancestral land ;)
Exactly. 65 years is too old to learn a language? The Latvian state has been independant for 30 years. Latvian was also a state language during ussr times, so if the person couldn't manage to learn the language in 40 or 50 years they have lived there, they have no right to complain right now. You have to put in extra effort to not manage to get A2 level after living in the country for several decades. People like this deserve only a one way bus ticket to mother ruzzia.
A little compassion might be appropriate.
@@rogerterry5013 They had 50 years to show a little compassion towards the country they occupied.
@@rogerterry5013 no. They had decades to get their shit together.
@@rogerterry5013 we were compassionate, for decades. The time ran out
The more languages you know, the richer you are! Say this to any russian in any baltic states when you ask them to learn native language and see what they reply! 90% of the time they will say: fuck I do not need your latvian, estonian or lithuanian languges, I have no use for them, I speak russian.
Say that to the Latvians who in short 30 years became monolingual 🤣🤣🤣
The problem is that there are people who lived in Latvia for many years and still can't speak the Latvian language.
While the history lesson may be interesting it is totally unnecessary. Russia as well as any other country has absolutely no right to seek to coerce or force any country to require or even allow Russian to be spoken there. Anyone who likes to speak Russian may do so but they must also use the official language of the country they reside in. If they don't want to speak anything but Russian, then they can move to Russia. A lot of Russians speak English. Should America "protect" them from Russia?
There is a video circulating online of a russian tourist in Vietnam, demanding the local Vietnamese to speak to them in russian, and then going into full rage coz that poor Vietnamese person couldn't speak russian, the poor fella didn't even know English. The level of entitlement is just......
America couldn't protect her natives which still live in reserves....
rusia need to leave the Latvians alone and focus their efforts on protecting the russian speaking community of israel
All these years and these people still can't integrate. Blood and soil is ridiculous.
integration should be two-way street? otherwise its forced assimilation
Russian imperialism alive and well I see. Long live Latvia 🇱🇻❤️🇭🇷
I'm honored That You Stand Bold Latvian Folk....TY That You Are!
28:50 Obviously has never been to Germany. If you're at a random Döner place chances are a regular sipping tea at a table is going to banter, in Turkish, with the guy preparing your Döner, the whole time.
It is a different thing though if it's the language of immigrants, or of occupiers. The "I feel persecuted" portion of the Russian population completely seems to ignore the "I feel threatened" side of the Latvian one: Just because *you* didn't do anything wrong and are peacefully living your life doesn't mean that there's not a responsibility to not put people unnecessarily at unease. Maybe a guilt vs. responsibility type dialogue would be helpful. Russian songs in public? On the one hand, there should be nothing wrong with playing say Zemfira or DDT, on the contrary. On the other hand, can you expect random Latvians to know that it's not Shaman?
As to Quebec: Let's just say that the French put "STOP" on their stop signs, not "ARRET".
This issue concerns a specific group of people who are mostly Russian (russian-speakers in this group identify as russians, even if passport says belarussian) and came to Latvia as occupiers during the Soviet era. As former 'conquerors,' they hold the belief that the local population should learn the language of the conquerors, which was the norm during Soviet times. In their minds, the empire still lives, and they firmly believe they have the right not to know the language of the country in which they reside. Instead, they expect everyone else to learn Russian to serve them, as their entire existence seems to hinge on Latvians knowing Russian, because it was pushed on us during Soviet times.
However, with each passing year, fewer and fewer Latvians speak Russian, because, for us, it is a foreign language, we don't use, it's not our language, not our culture. Yet these russians can’t even buy bread in a shop unless someone understands Russian there. They can’t open a bank account unless there’s a Russian-speaking employee to assist them. They do not want to learn Latvian language even for their own benefit. For example, to call the police or go to the doctor. In any other country that has not spent 50 years under occupation, such behaviour would be unacceptable and people would laugh at such demands.
Latvians have simply had enough of this. Because of these people, we are passively forced to learn Russian; otherwise, older employers might not hire us. The excuse for the Russian language requirement is always the same-we have Russians who don’t speak Latvian, so you must learn Russian to serve them. When this privilege is denied, they label it as 'nationalism, fascism, humiliation, discrimination.' Generations are changing & employers are getting younger & remove this kind of request tho.
We have a lot of trauma from Soviet times, and it takes time to pick up the pieces, but we have to move on. We can’t do that if the occupiers are still privileged. They basecly thinks there 3 groups of people Latvians, minorities & russians as a seperate group with their own special threatmet & privilegies. We think otherwise.
We have other ethnicities living here as well, and there are no such issues with them. They speak their own languages, listen to their own music, and celebrate their own festivals, all without demanding that the entire country learn their language or embrace their culture if you''e not part of it. They celebrate their culture, share it but do not push their culture on others.
Unlike Russian speakers, Latvians have no other country to call home. All we want is to live here in peace and speak Latvian, the language of our own land. If you want to speak any other language-please do, but don’t expect us to know it. This is the same unwriten law every single country has. Unfortunately, the only group that doesn’t seem to understand this is Russians.
This is such a difficult topic, thank you for this documentary which airs the topic well.
Even Putin don't believe his own excuse . My guess .
Such a shame that, of all people from Daugavpils, they chose to interview two of the most politically promiscuous and self-interested. Next time please check the Daugavpils Fortress visitor centre. The folks working there will not only _not_ try to push their own political agenda through your video, but will also have a much better understanding of the political landscape in the region, and as an added bonus will also tell you about the history of the town :)
The Russians in Latvia are the lucky ones
This is how it began in crimea. Scary
what begin? the tensions between independent Latvia and "local russians"- majority of who arrived during soviet occupation and their descendants srated already in 1991 but the numbers (nominal and proporton) of russians is decreasing and in 2-3 decades will be even less, so very unlikely that anything like recent Crimea events will happen in Latvia.
@@rh7018 till green man appears and all population vote for independence? Are latvian want to go to war in this case? Ukrnaian says - no. And there are many reasons for it - like for example Ukraine lost most of itis economy in such war right now and ask for money to survive.
If you live in ANY country you should speak THAT countries language.
I find it so bizzare hearing Pitkeviča mumble about feeling discriminated, when I as a Latvian, can go out for a walk in Rīga, and 95% of the speech i hear, is Russian.
Not 95% but certainly 75%.
Ironically 80% of ethnic Latvians over the age of 60 in Riga have less Latvian language skills than 95% of ethnic Russians under the age of 35!
@@taboulefattouch4744 Gonna have to ask for a source on that claim.
@@MagicNash89
The source is any and every person who lived in Riga before 1989.
Ethnic Latvians in Riga spoke Russian because Latvian was considered the language of illiterate villagers and uneducated people.
@@taboulefattouch4744 funny and itis still is. manily bcouse lanaguge did not develop in science and etc.
I was born in ruzzia my first language is ruzzian, but I'm Lithuanian, my ancestors were Lithuanian who were deported to Siberia. I never felt like I was living in a different country or feel like I'm unwanted, I speak Lithuanian passed my exams. Easy as that, I have no problems learning a language, even when I did not know about my families tree.
The 3 Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were annexed by the Russians in 1940 because it was one of the conditions to conclude a non-aggression pact with the Nazis in 1939. Poland was also part of that. Eastern Poland was occupied and 20,000 Polish nobles and officers were murdered at Katin in Poland by the Russians. And they did the same with the Baltic states. All politicians and officers were taken to camps in Russia. Now we get the same as with Ukraine, the Russian separatists are starting to stir. Expel everyone from the country the only solution.
why not to expel with terretories they live in and was born? like crimea?
Latvian here. There is no separatism as far as I know.
We have had attacks on the Museum of occupation, hateful attacks targeting Latvians and Ukrainians, increase in spy's that get caught flying drones or taking pictures etc.
Latgale is the only region which has a distinct flag of the main regions - it's quite popular and well known and can be used to push separatism ideas in future.
@@arnoldssurins7016 have u asked who is pushing idea of Latgale as it's own state? I'll give u a hint - people that dont speak latgalian but reside in cities like Rezekne and Daugavpils. The ones that thought "Kopā Latvijai" is good name for party from Latgale (which translated from latgalian means "in a grave for Latvia").
@@snonsense6295
As a person from Daugavpils it's also interesting to see that even Russians living outside of the two big cities in Latgale have completely different opinions, this is probably because the Russians in the smaller cities and country side are descendents of the Russian empire or polish Lithuanian comenwealth times.
@@arnoldssurins7016 Actually, Selians and Livonians also have their own flags. And the only "Latgalians" who'd want their own state are those who can't speak Latgalian (and Latvian, wink wink).
15:30 Olga's poor russian seniors the rights of whom she fights for are holding Russian federation pasports and vote for Putin in elections in Russia. So no no noone of them is responsible for war un Ukraine😂
Informative video. Makes me wonder how differently things would be had the Baltic states not had such a unhuman like neighbor. This video probably wouldn’t even exist as Latvia is a Northern European country and it’s economy would probably be as good as it’s Nordic and Scandinavian neighbors. What a shame..
it would be less corruption, less crimes, more investors in our country.
latvia would be a region in germany if there was no russia 😭
@@kirilll7806 source: Russian propoganda ☠️
@@karkevicius Calling Russia unhuman is really not fair. The government and the people should be divided, in every country there are bad and good people
Latvia is protecting it’s national security from a neighbouring pariah state so they have to send a strong message.
I was born and raised and lived 35 years of my life in Daugavpils. I haven't even clicked the play button, I already know what this movie is all about. To me personally it makes near unbearable to live in my own hometown (which I don't anymore, for past three years I live in Varna, Bulgaria).
...and the winters down there are a bit easier too! As a Brit living in Riga for the past few years, I've decided to move south when I can 🙂
As a Russian-speaking Latvian I must say we do get discriminated a lot: based on our names, surnames. You must run an extra mile if you're willing to work at government, police, etc.
why should latvians employ russians in their government or police ? particularly in the present situation ?
As a Latvian I also dont really support pushing those Russian elders so harsh... whatever are their views,they are human and they lived here for all
their lives... This is goverments fault that they did not do anything in 30 years to limit Russian language... I mean look at Estonia, since 90 they did put a lot of effort.... Here in Latvia only when Russia went into Ukraine our ''goverment'' started to take action..... So now you can't expect an old person learn something like this...
That is not how we as human race should be.... And changes coudn't be done before the war in Ukraine because politics in Latvia are 110% affected by Russia...
I understand your sentiment, but we need to acknowledge that living in Latvia means respecting its official language and culture. Latvian has been the official language for decades, and there's no excuse for not learning it, especially when resources and opportunities to do so have always been available. Sympathy for the elderly doesn't change the fact that integration into society is a responsibility, and knowing the language is a basic part of that.
Tavi senči droši vien bija tie kas tankus sagaidīja ar puķēm, nevis tie, kurus izsūtīja uz Sibīriju.
Olga, girrrrl have you seen the state language exam?🤣 It's kindergarten level, bare minimum, no one asks them to pass a C1 native speaker level exam with an essay. Pattern up, it's embarrassing!
how about fine to listen russian music at home? that is kindergarden level or still a little above?
@@sguploads9601 there is no such thing. None. Zero. It's a total lie. There is no fine for listening to russian music at home. :)
English speaking Canadians were never "forbidden" to speak English in Quebec. In fact in the 70's, English was the first language in a part of downtown Montreal! I once asked my mon why she spoke English in the stores during a shopping trip in Montreal! She did not answer and told me to be quiet!
You are missing the real reason for Latvia to not use Russian language is to not give Putin this reason to invade Latvia
great documentary!
It’s quite alarming how tone death is the leader of Harmony party. Her blindness to historical trauma Latvians suffered from the hands of Russian is deliberately obtuse.
To hate Russians and be a Russia' neighbor = recipe for disaster.
Historycal trauma. Quite lightly describing death of thousand of People from hands of Soviet regime.
I am from a spanish speaking country and for me it is very simple. Spanish is our language and if people wanna speak other language well..they can do it at home. But they have to speak spanish..In my country, Argentina, there are tens of thousands of russian migrants now and they wouldnt dare to ask to speak russian here because they know we wouldnt let them. Imagine latvians with their history..In Latvia you speak latvian, very simple. If you dont like it, go back to Russia
Sad, i think italian should be the main language of Argentina
@@Kurdish20226 jajaja. I like italian. But I prefer spanish and it's a much more useful language also. But they are very very similar anyways
@@juantorres-dj3fn mate,the conquistadors were ilegal emigrants who were brought by wind in their dingies on south american shores.Normally,as guests you should have had to learn the language of the indigenous populations:aztecs,maya,etc.This way ,your comment would have had some sense.
@@catalincarceanu7991 Who told You there are people who don't or can't speak native languages?? In all countries Those languages are legally protected and in many have the same legal status as spanish. Anyone can speak them if they want to or can..Unfortunetely, in most of the continent there are not many indigenous people left (except in México, Perú and Bolivia) because they died of imported diseases or were extrrminated some centuries ago.
@@juantorres-dj3fn means they were not so lucky as the Latvians if they were exterminated and the remnants had to learn spanish or portuguese
we still have more RUS radio stations, than Latvian. We still translate all comercials in RUS and they still keep whining about minority rights. Living here for decades and dreaming about great Russia is kind a fucked up
As a Tatar, who actually have faced REAL discrimination (a discrimination which came from the russians), I simply can't understand what the russians in Latvia are complaining about. Has the Latvian police ever thrown anyone in prison for saying a word in russian? No. But such things have happened to my relatives in Tatarstan (which is currently still under russian occupation).
Я из Советской Риги, с Маскачки ! Эх были времена приятно вспомнить ! 😁
Sad our secret services are russified, Olga should be jailed for lying and spreading propoganda. No one banned Russian language, everyone can speak Russian, and we have Russian dance clubs with Russian music, Galkin from Russia makes concerts here, and many other Russian artists. And sadly there will be people who will think that Olga is telling truth.
Olga wants Kirkorovs and SHAMAN, and Galkins jailed.
"We should be able to speak Russian, in our own homes."
That should tell you everything. Why is this woman concerned with her privacy being breached? Russian isn't outlawed......almost like, she's applying what Russia does to it's citizens, in Latvia. Bit sketch, js. 17:58
There's a lot of people who will try to claim that what Latvia is doing is just rusophobic. But it's very clear that the people who are at risk from these laws are not "people who are of Russian descent, but who respect the Latvia's ethnic distinction from Russia, it's right to have territorial integrity, and recognise the proven history of atrocity against Latvians that led there to be so many Russians in their territory". The laws are basic legal protections that almost every country has in terms of proving your citizenship, from USA to China to Chile to anywhere, almost every country expects a basic level of language, law and respect. No one is banned from speaking Russian, they're simply asked to ALSO learn the native language of the country. And again, if the excuse is that there shouldn't be a native language, it's provable that the native language and the natives of this area will Latvian, and that the Russians are people who took the land a few generations back from the natives after committing massive slaughters against them. The bare minimum respect you could do if you want to live on the land that your grandfather or great grandfather stole from a murdered Latvian is to learn their language. The only people at risk from these sorts of laws are the people who intentionally choose to Russify themselves and others around them, to say that "the territory of Latvia belongs to Russia and will be annexed" and want to use this as an excuse to allow Russia to invade Latvia.
True words! 👏👏👏
I am proudly of Latvian descent!
What is the old saying. When in Rome do as the Romans . But the Russians refused to do so because they are so high and mighty
There's a lot of empty space in Russia, why do they not simply go home?