The European Parliament reconciled with discrimination of the Russian-speaking population existing at the Baltic States, however, the deputies found a justification of this decision by Estonian and Latvian authorities. This position is reflected in the report by the European Parliament, IA Sputnik informs. The agency’s specialists believe that it was necessary to deprive the Russians of citizenship in order to build national states. At this, discrimination of Russians is justified from the historical point of view.
It appears that the majority of Russians living at the Baltics could lose citizenship because the countries were afraid of blurring national identity and demographic problems. At the same time, deputies of the European Parliament credited themselves with mitigation of laws on naturalization.
The authors of the report are sure that non-citizens are reluctant to get citizenship themselves, as it stops them from working in the Schengen countries. It also frees young people from being drafted into the army. Besides, natural migration of Russians to the European countries and back to Russia continues, whereas the elderly Russians who stay in Estonia and Latvia do not want to become citizens of those countries any more.
The report reads that the European court of Human Rights has always implicitly supported the Latvia’s reluctance to provide the Russian immigrants of the Soviet era with the Latvian citizenship. In opinion of the experts, the European Convention on Human Rights does not work in this case as the right for citizenship is not related to elementary human rights.
The problem of non-citizens in Latvia and Estonia is very topical at the moment. People pay taxes working for the good of the states, at this, they are deprived of many civil rights. In particular, they can not take part in referendums, parliamentary elections and regional elections. There are limitations of travelling within the European Union.
Russkiy Mir
