Latvia's Non-Citizens

From the BBC:
"Life in limbo for Latvia's non-citizens"

I have written about this in the past, but lately have changed how I see all this. It has been 18 years since the Soviet Union collapsed and I think that is enough time for the Latvian language to thrive (which is one of the reasons that Latvia and the other Baltic States created non-citizens in 1991.) If an ethnic Russian was born in Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia before December 1991 and they chose to become citizens of one of those countries (and no other) then they should be allowed to become full citizens. Of course every former Soviet citizen had the right to become a citizen of the Russian Federation (up until 2002) so there is no real reason why these people should be considered stateless, but if they don't want to become full Russian citizens then they should be allowed to become a citizen of one of the Baltic countries. It would also make sense that if they don't want to become full Russians than they should learn the national language of whatever country they want to become full members (ie Estonian, Latvian or Lithuanian.)

The Baltics are all now part of the EU and NATO and so many ethnic non-citizen Russians want all the opportunities that that allows (ie free movement with the EU and a high standard of living.) As long as these non citizens prove they are trying to learn the national language and have no other nationality than I think they should be made full citizens of whatever Baltic country they reside in.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8630304.stm