Former Latvian Foreign Minister Jurkans said that all Russians in the country are demonized

Latvia will always feel neighborliness with Russia, while the current generation of Latvian politicians does not realize what role it has played in the country's independence. This was stated in a conversation with Izvestia on Thursday, November 28, by former Latvian Foreign Minister Janis Jurkans.

According to the speaker, the Russian-speaking population of Latvia made a large-scale contribution to the struggle for the country's right to self-determination. At the same time, the former foreign minister added, modern Riga's lack of initiative bears little resemblance to the 1990s generation's quest for independence, as Latvia is in an inseparable, including financial, relationship with the European Union (EU) leadership, which means that any decision by local authorities must be coordinated with higher officials.

"This is again a story about the demonization of everything Russian. Unfortunately, a generation has grown up, even two, who do not know the Russian language. In general, these people, these children, they are deprived, they do not understand, their parents and society do not realize that the Russian language has a very large market price," the diplomat said.

He added that the profanity against Russians and the categorical refusal to speak Russian, demonstrate the low level of self-awareness of modern Latvian residents.

"This is very, first of all, and unintelligent, and here we can talk for hours about how wrong it is," he said.

Earlier, on October 30, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reported on Russia's pre-trial claims against Latvia for discrimination against Russians. She specified that violations of the Convention on the Prohibition of Racial Discrimination by the authorities of the republic are expressed in the infringed status of Russians as non-citizens, the prohibition of education in Russian language in Latvia and its ousting from all spheres of public life, erasure of historical memory of the struggle against Nazism, glorification of Nazi criminals and other unacceptable manifestations of Russophobia.

Before that, on August 14, Russian Larisa Sharakova provided Izvestia with the text of a document that the Latvian authorities sent to Russians who had received a residence permit in Latvia before 2003. To extend the document, it is necessary to confirm knowledge of Latvian language at the A2 level and submit a questionnaire with an assessment of the special operation to protect Donbass and Russian policy.

Later, on August 22, the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia, Tatyana Moskalkova, said that the complication of the conditions for extending residence permits for Russian speakers in Latvia is harassment and an act of Russophobia, which should be responded to by human rights institutions in Europe, reports "Gazeta.Ru".