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Latvia: Citizenship law

01 March 1998

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Latvia has bowed to western pressure and has agreed to facilitate naturalization for the Russian minority. The quota regulation will be abolished but the language test and the examination on Latvia's history will remain. Yet it is questionable if more Russians, a third of the population, will now obtain Lithuanian citizenship. Since the seven years of its independence, less than 10,000 out of the 700,000 Russians have obtained Latvian citizenship. Citizenship is also a precondition for work in the public sector. Russia argues that Latvia discriminates against its large ethnic Russian population, and has threatened economic sanctions unless Latvia changed its citizenship law.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has criticized Latvia's citizenship law and has made reform proposals. A spokesperson of the Latvian Foreign Office has stated that the government followed the proposals, yet the press in Latvia has been sceptical about whether the reforms will find a majority in the parliament.

Financial Times, 15.4.98; die tageszeitung, 17.4.98.

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