Russian citizens living in the Republic of Latvia do not want to leave the country due to the failure with the Latvian language

Chairman of the Daugavpils City Duma commission on social issues, people’s deputy, head of the structural unit “Russian Cultural Center” of the self-government institution “House of Unity” Natalya Kozhanova (“Concord”) regularly meets with residents of Daugavils whose documents have lost force in Latvia. These are residents of Latvia who once decided to become Russian citizens and are now paying a high price for it. Each of them has their own life story, in most cases not connected with Russia, each of them has their own decision when receiving news of deportation from Latvia.

“You know, some people don’t want to do anything, they are depressed, there are people who packed their things, made a decision and left somewhere. Not necessarily to Russia, because those Russian citizens who live here are not connected with Russia, they have no relatives there, there is nowhere to go. There are situations related to Belarus, and there are people who go there. There are those who go to visit their children somewhere in Europe, who live in England. There are very different situations. And, unfortunately, there are situations when people die. Because the stress affected their health, and people might not stand it. A lot of people died,” Kozhanova said.

Rimma, a Russian citizen, was among the residents of Daugavpils who received a letter of deportation from Latvia from the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA) because she had failed a Latvian language exam.

“I didn’t know what to do, what to do when I received the news that on December 1 I would have to leave Latvia. I didn’t pass the language exam, I’m regarding to be deported, and I have no relatives in Russia. Will you have to go to the outskirts of Pskov? I can’t even express the emotions that I felt then. But I decided to take Latvian language courses, although at work I had second category knowledge of the Latvian language. Unfortunately, the language was forgotten over the years; there was no one to communicate with. And when I took the exam for the second time, I failed to score the required points. It’s hard now, my Russian pension is regarding 90 euros, very little, and it’s impossible to pay for everything, for the language test, for all the letters. Money runs out very quickly,” Rimma said.

Now Rimma, who was born in Estonia, having failed the Latvian language test for the second time, has received a permit that gives her the opportunity to stay in Latvia for another two years to improve her knowledge of the Latvian language.



Rimma is over 70 years old, she is an artist by profession, she got married in Latvia. Russian citizenship gave her the opportunity to travel without visas and participate in international exhibitions. Now, having lost her source of livelihood, she came under the patronage of the Daugavpils society “Rupes”, which, like others, delivers packages of food and medicine to her every week.

“This is not the only thing we carry and help with. This includes firewood, animal feed and medicine. We organize fundraisers and help people who are in trouble and have no money at all. We decided we mightn’t pass it up. That is why journalists also came to understand what was happening,” the society said.

Foreign journalists often visit Daugavpils precisely because of the issue of the expulsion of Russian citizens, this time they are colleagues from the BBC, who are interested in how people without documents survive and make a living. Among them is 80-year-old Lyudmila from Uzbekistan, she did not have to take the Latvian language exam due to her age, but not knowing that she would have to renew her residence permit in Latvia cost her the loss of her pension, as well as access to medicine for several months like a diabetic. Now the documents have been submitted and the woman also hopes to stay in Latvia. Her children were born here and she has nowhere else to go.

There are currently regarding 1,000 Russian citizens living in Latvia who, unlike these two women from Daugavpils, have not yet submitted documents to obtain a residence permit in Latvia. And the process of deporting these Russian citizens will be very difficult and burdensome, as the head of the OCMA, Maira Rose, admitted in the Sejm Commission on Citizenship, Migration and Social Cohesion in early December.

For these reasons, not a single Russian citizen has been deported from Latvia yet.

But this month the Constitutional Court began considering a case on the rule under which Russian citizens must prove knowledge of the Latvian language in order to obtain a new residence permit. A decision in this case will be announced in February.