MOSCOW, FEBRUARY 27 (RIA NOVOSTI) - Members of Russia's artistic and research communities have forwarded a letter to Latvian Ambassador Normans Penke to protest his government's discriminatory policies against the Russian language. In this letter, they point out that the Latvian government's recent decision to reduce to a minimum the number of Russian-language subjects on the school curriculum is tantamount to "political apartheid." The people and the government of Latvia, who are now seeking to become part of Euroland, may not neglect the rules and regulations accepted in the European community, such as regionalism and respect for ethnic minorities, the letter emphasizes.
The imposition of restrictions on Russian-language schooling in Latvia is just another act of infringement upon the Russian community's legitimate rights while the Latvian government's pressure to bear on citizens willing to study in Russian is a "recurrence of fascism." Even the Nazis stopped short of encroaching on ethnic schools in foreign territories they occupied during WWII, it reads.
The signatories to the letter call on the Latvian government to repeal the controversial amendments to the education law.
