No Russian Latvia

From the BBC:

"Latvia rejects making Russian an official language"

Latvians have resoundingly rejected the option of making Russian the country's second official language, results from a referendum indicate.About two-thirds of those registered voted, the election commission said, many more than in previous polls. The referendum, initiated by a Russian speakers' movement, has exposed deep fault-lines in Latvia. Ethnic Russians, who make up about one-third of Latvia's population, have long complained of discrimination. But many ethnic Latvians believe the referendum was an attempt to encroach on the country's independence. Officials said that with more than 90% of votes counted, 75% of votes cast in Saturday's referendum were against the proposal. Turnout was about 69%, which officials say was considerably higher than expected. Learning Latvian was a prerequisite for citizenship in the years after the country split from the Soviet Union two decades ago. But many Russian-speakers resisted, and some 300,000 remain without citizenship, which means they cannot vote in elections, hold public office or work in government institutions, the Associated Press reports.

^ I understand why Latvia (and the other Baltic countries) felt the need to require Latvian (Lithuanian and Estonian) to be the sole national language once these countries regained their independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. What I don't understand is why, 20 years later, Russian can't be used again? All the Baltic countries are now in the European Union and NATO and Estonia even uses the Euro. These organizations will not allow Russia to occupy it a third time. The Russians annexed the Baltics until the Communist Revolution in 1917. From 1917-1939 they were independent and prosperous countries. The Soviets then occupied the Baltics from 1939-1941 and again from 1945-1991 and deported millions of people from the Baltics along with moving millions of ethnic Russians there to force their will on the native people. During the Soviet occupation any non-Russian was discriminated against. Those that learned Russian at least had a chance of gaining some status. After decades of bowing down to the ethnic Russians the USSR collapsed in 1991 and the Baltic states worked to reverse the influence of Russian and the ethnic-Russian population that was forced upon them. The ethnic Russians were turned into "stateless" people who couldn't vote or gain citizenship unless they learned the new national language (of course since Russia was the successor state of the Soviet Union any former Soviet citizen had the right to become a citizen of Russia until 2002 so these "stateless" people could have moved to Russia.) In the 20 years since they regained their independence a lot has changed and the fear of being a minority in their own country has decreased immensely. I believe that Russian should be given a special status in the Baltic states - whether it is an official language or a language of inter-cultural communication as it is in many CIS countries (of which none of the Baltic countries are part of.) The "stateless" people should be given the same rights as other citizens - especially considering that automatic Russian citizenship is no longer available to former Soviets. I also think that the "stateless" should want to learn the language, culture and traditions of the country they live in - otherwise they should move to Russia or someplace else. When I visited the Ukraine (where only Ukrainian in the official language) I used Russian in everything since I didn't speak Ukrainian and they didn't speak English. I do not personally know if that is the same case in the Baltics, but I assume it is to a certain extent especially in the cities and among those in their 30s or older.

There needs to be a balance where the ethnic-Russians embrace their country while at the same time maintain their ethnicity and the Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians learn to accept and stop discriminating against the ethnic Russians living in their country. 20 years is more than enough time for both sides to push aside their historical differences and start working together. ^

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17083397