[lg policy] Putin Criticizes Estonia, Latvia in Anti-Western Article (1)

[Harold Schiffman]

Putin Criticizes Estonia, Latvia in Anti-Western Article (1)
Kuumad uudised 27 Feb 2012 EWR OnlineEWR

Steve Roman, ERR News
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has once again blasted Estonian
and Latvian citizenship and language policies, this time mentioning
them in a lengthy article that mostly hit out against the US and NATO.

Putin's piece, "Russia and the Changing World," which appeared in
Moskovskie Novosti on February 27, is the latest a series of
pre-election articles he has released in the run-up to the country's
March 4 presidential elections. Though most of the 6,000-word position
statement lambasted Western military strategy and foreign policy,
painting it as overly-agressive and irrationally anti-Russian, Estonia
and Latvia were not spared Russia's traditional rap on minority rights
issues.

"We are determined to ensure that Latvian and Estonian authorities
follow the numerous recommendations of reputable international
organizations on observing generally accepted rights of ethnic
minorities. We cannot tolerate the shameful status of 'non-citizen,'"
he said, as translated by Russia's state-owned news agency RIA
Novosti.

"How can we accept that, due to their status as non-citizens, one in
six Latvian residents and one in thirteen Estonian residents are
denied their fundamental political, electoral and socioeconomic rights
and the ability to freely use Russian?"

Putin also criticized Latvia's recent referendum on making Russian a
state language, decrying what he said was 300,000 non-citizens being
barred from taking part as well as what he termed the "outrageous"
decision by the Latvian Central Electoral Committee to refuse to allow
a Russian delegation to monitor the vote.

Both Estonia and Latvia have large ethnic Russian minorities among
their populations, a legacy of Soviet-era migration policies. Most
have taken Estonian, Latvian or Russian citizenship, however around
100,000 in Estonia and 290,000 in Latvia have still not opted to
apply. Application for Estonian and Latvian citizenship in most cases
requires passing a language examination.

http://www.eesti.ca/index.php?op=article&articleid=35365

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