From January 1, 2026, Latvia is set to prohibit the teaching of Russian as a second foreign language in schools.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7224815

From January 1, 2026, Latvia is set to prohibit the teaching of Russian as a second foreign language in schools.

Starting the same date, Russian-language TV and radio broadcasting will be banned in state media. Additionally, the VAT on sales of Russian-language books will increase to 21%.

These measures aim to reduce the presence of the Russian language and strengthen the role of the Latvian language in society.

Russian is the native language for 36% of Latvians.[1]

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language_in_Latvia ↩︎

  • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
    31·
    12 hours ago

    Oh boy, I’m sure the EU, champions of human rights, will condemn this blatant attack on the fundamental rights of Russian language speakers in Latvia any second now.

    • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml
      5·
      5 hours ago

      If that would happen in let’s say, China, entire anglo net would immediately scream “cultural genocide”, but i guess it’s ok when happening to Russians, as the occurences of 2014+ in Ukraine clearly proven.

    • HiddenLayer555@lemmy.mlEnglish
      17·
      9 hours ago

      Seriously I hate the holier than thou “we['re the only ones that] care about cultural and racial rights” attitude the West has almost as much I hate the actual racism and cultural erasure that goes on here. I hate how people will bend over backwards twisting every fact and theory to justify this as “not about anti-Russian racism” and then in the very next breath twist everything the other way to justify how any amount of criticism of Israel’s genocide is “antisemitic.”

      The “people” vs “government” dichotomy people have is also infuriating. Any Westerner when confronted about the West’s atrocities will instinctively say “oh but that’s my GOVERNMENT that’s like that, I’m just little old John Nobody who didn’t get to choose the society I was born into or what the elite of my country does, I don’t like it either.” Which could be a valid argument if they didn’t then go “oh those Russians are all Asiatic orcs, every single one of them personally wants to kill every Ukrainian so punishing average Russians is absolutely the way to punish Putin’s war.”

    • narwhal@mander.xyz
      4·
      6 hours ago

      They consider incompatible with their values to mandate foreign actors indentify as such. The country needs to be wide open for political meddling, otherwise the garden will close its doors.

      Edit: Not defending EU, see my other comment for context.

      • HiddenLayer555@lemmy.mlEnglish
        13·
        10 hours ago

        They consider incompatible with their values to mandate foreign actors indentify as such.

        Lol so they’re so incompetent they can’t look past “does this guy speak Russian?” In their foreign actor counterintelligence?

        This is cartoon level shit, like something you’d see from American Dad. Also they’re in for a real surprise when they learn about modern pre Caesar espionage tactics talking about choosing actors fluent in the language of your target.

        • narwhal@mander.xyz
          5·
          6 hours ago

          You misunderstand. I’m not trying to justify these measures. I’m pointing out their policy is not meant to safeguard human rights, but rather to exercise control. If you remember back in 2024 when Georgia introduced the foreign agents law, and EU officials were not happy about it, saying it was a pro russia law. This is what they said as I remember, that such a law was incompatible with european standards. In reality they were just sour that their assets in political interference abroad would lose effectiveness. My comment about garden closing its doors was a reference to back then EU official Josep Borell infamous metaphor comparing europe to a garden and the other countries to a jungle, as such was the fate of Georgia.