RIGA (Sputnik) — Earlier on Sunday, the government of Latvia addressed the results of a study conducted by the Center for Security and Strategic Research within the Defense Academy of Latvia, which revealed that 12.7 percent of Latvian citizens feel like they belong to Russia and that 21.4 percent would positively assess Russian symbols such as flags and ribbons being used on the streets on May 9, celebrated as Victory Day in Russia and the former Soviet republics.
"I call it a struggle for the soul of the Russian-speaking population, which is currently going on," Kucinskis told reporters.
He added that Latvia should do everything necessary so that Russian-speaking residents do not feel estranged.
According to the survey results, 27 percent of Latvian residents believe that Latvia actively discriminates against residents who do not speak the Latvian language and 21.7 percent believe that the rights and interests of Russian people in Latvia are being violated to an extent which requires the Russian intervention.
After declining for over two decades, Latvia's population dipped below two million in 2014 for the first time since 1954, according to the website Vesti.lv. Russians in Latvia make up 26 percent of the country's population, according to national statistics. Even in 1936, before the country's Soviet period, over 10 percent of the country was ethnically Russian; most ethnic Russians in Latvia today reside in the country's capital region and in the southeast. Some 40 percent of those living in Latvia speak Russian. Latvia's only official language is Latvian.
