The Latvian Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA) has sent notifications to 841 Russian citizens stating that they must leave the country by Oct. 13, Public Broadcasting of Latvia (LSM) reported. According to the agency, these individuals failed to submit the necessary documents to obtain a residence permit in line with the 2024 amendments to the country’s Immigration Law.
According to the broadcast, this group of Russian citizens had also missed the deadline to apply to take a required Latvian language exam. Maira Roze, the head of OCMA, noted that some of those who received notifications “had heard or seen nothing,” and had only realized something was wrong when their pensions stopped being paid.
Representatives of the Immigration Service of the State Border Guard are conducting inspections of the Russian nationals who did not respond to the OCMA’s call. According to Lieutenant Colonel Gatis Rūža, head of the Riga Service of the State Border Guard, the majority of individuals whose residence permits are no longer valid have already left the country.
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What Latvia is doing is requiring that residents that Russian citizen residents that have been living in Latvia for a long time naturalize as citizens. The requirement for naturalization is an A2 language test and some paperwork (paperwork and meetings can be done in Russian language convetionally.)
This action by the Latvian government forced naturaliszation of the vast majority of residents left in this non-citizen situation. A portion of those non-citizans are unable to follow the requirement (usually too old to learn the language); they are political casualties - so far it appears to be in the 10s or 100s. Another portion of those non-citizens refuse to follow the requirement; they are political martyrs.
Why is Latvia (and EE and LT) doing this?
Because Russia threatens nations with Russian ethnic populations, of the nation doesn’t conform to Russian political perspectives.