Russian language in Latvia

[2] The modern Latvian language has retained a number of loanwords borrowed from Old East Slavic during the early contacts between the East Slavic and Baltic people, such as kalps ("farmhand"; from холпь – "serf, slave"), grāmata ("book"; from грамота – "alphabet, writing, literacy"), baznīca ("church"; from божница – "church, chapel"), modrs ("vigilant, watchful, alert"; мѫдръ – "wise"), sods ("punishment"; from судъ) and strādāt ("to work"; from страдати).

[11] The number of native Russian speakers increased sharply after the Soviet re-occupation in 1944 to fill the gaps in the workforce created by World War II, mass deportations, execution and emigration.

[15] A month after the removal of the Latvian National Communist leader Eduards Berklavs, All-Union legislation was implemented in Latvia by Arvīds Pelše.

The letter also stressed the fact that approximately 65% of doctors working in municipal heath institutions did not speak Latvian, which often resulted in serious medical errors.

[17] Furthermore, it pointed out how almost two-thirds of radio and television broadcasts and around half of the published periodical literature in Latvia was already fully in Russian.

Even many collectives where Latvians formed the majority often yielded to the demands of their Russian-speaking members to conduct the meetings in Russian out of fear of being accused of nationalism.

Middle, tertiary and higher education institutions had begun transitioning to Russian as the language of instruction, whereas many of the officials that had objected to these policies had been removed from their posts.

The Head of the Latvian State Language Center Antons Kursītis named it one of the main reasons influencing youth emigration to other European countries.

[27] The app was criticized by Russian-speaking activists who claimed it instigates ethnic hatred and attempted to block it on Google Play Store.

[32] The Harmony Centre leader and Mayor of Riga Nils Ušakovs publicly declared that he had signed the petition[33][34][35][36] but as a "private citizen".

[37] After that, other deputies, local government representatives and public officials from Harmony Centre began to sign it as well,[38] including MP Nikolai Kabanov [lv; ru] who was later issued a written warning by the Saeima Mandate, Ethics and Submissions Committee for violating the deputy's solemn vow (oath), in which Kabanov swore to strengthen the Latvian language as the only official language.

The bill was opposed by the opposition Social Democratic Party "Harmony", the Latvian Russian Union as well as the heads of several universities and NGOs.

[67][53] Riga International School of Economics and Business Administration Vice-Rector Igors Graurs said it will affect the export capacity of Latvia's education, resulting in about 54 million euro loss for the Latvian economy.

[72] On April 3, 2018, the State Duma released a statement strongly objecting to the reform and claiming it "violates the principles observed by most civilized countries."

and demanded for "special economic measures" to be taken against Latvia,[73] while Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia warned the new legislation will have a negative impact on Latvia–Russia relations.

[74] Member of the State Duma Sergei Zheleznyak called the reform a "language genocide" and compared it to "open Nazism toward the Russian population" allegedly happening in Ukraine.

[75] Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia responded that "The Russian officials who express their views on amendments to Latvian laws seem not to be familiar with the substance of the reform at all."

[78] On July, the party "Harmony" submitted a similar lawsuit contesting the constitutionality of the reform on the basis that it allegedly discriminates ethnic minorities.

[79][80] On November Constitutional Court received one more complaint from students of a private elementary school with Russian as the language of tuition.

[81] On April 23, 2019, the Constitutional Court ruled that the transition does not infringe the right of ethnic minorities to education and dismissed the case submitted by members of Harmony.

On October 23, 2017, almost 400 people, mostly the elderly and children, gathered outside the Ministry of Education and Science in a protest organized by the political party Latvian Russian Union.

Overall 41.4% of respondents supported the motion and 34.7% opposed it, however, the results showed a significant polarization of opinions, depending on the language spoken at home.

After the restoration of independence in 1991, the traditions of Sovetskaya Molodyozh were continued by newspapers such as Vesti segodnya, Chas, Biznes&Baltia [ru], Telegraf and others.

Mamikins pointed out that Gerhards had spoken Russian on TV before and started broadcasting prepared clips from the channel's archive of him doing so.

[94] On October 17, 2016, National Electronic Mass Media Council [lv] sent a letter to the administration of Latvian Television calling it to provide a translation in the state-language if needed and not to exclude representatives from invited institutions for not speaking Russian after it received a complaint from a state institution whose representative was denied participation in the state-owned LTV7 Russian-language talk show Tochki nad i (Точкu над i) for wanting to speak Latvian on the basis that "it's not technically possible to provide a translation during the broadcast, because extra resources would be required.

"[95] In September 2018, Tochki nad i host Oļegs Ignatjevs informed National Alliance he would not allow Latvian being spoken by the party's representative on the upcoming show's episode on education in minority languages.