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]
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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
modernpre Caesar espionage tactics talking about choosing actors fluent in the language of your target.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.
clearly their values don’t include basic human rights, so that of itself says all we need to know about the fascist organization that is the EU
Just straight up banning human knowledge and the ability to communicate with others. Vile.
Removed by mod
Ok…but this sounds like the exact thing that Russia would use as a pretext for an invasion. Are they stupid?
They do not fear the Russian invasion at all, and all the fearmongering it’s just coverup for extreme chauvinism, stuffing their pockets on military money and to keeping their corrupted asses on their offices.
History started in 2022. US proxy war good. Mmm, burguer.
Buddy, I agree with you. Please gain some reading comprehension instead of trying to get sick dunks in.
I think their point was that your comment seems based in an exaggerated idea of what the country of Russia would consider acceptable pretext for an invasion
Let me clarify then, because I think people want to look at rhetorical signifiers more then actual history.
The collapse of Socialism in Eastern Europe produced an immense amount of material suffering. Angst about that suffering, in the wake of a both Socialism and Capitalism being seen as failures, has produced a political millieu that hinges very heavily on various nascent fascisms and ethnic nationalisms.
In Ukraine, tensions between ethnic Ukrainians in the west, and ethnic Russians in the east simmered for long time, and one of the things that caused tensions to rise was a law very similar to this Latvian one, which clamped down on the language rights of Russian speakers in the east.
Ukrainian parliamentary representatives got into whole ass brawls about it, Russian separatist movements began brewing, and the west, seeing an opportunity to influence a country on Russia’s borders, helped give a considerable push to the Maidan in 2014.
Russia, in turn, backed the Russian separatists in the Donbas, citing the protection of ethnic Russians, among other things.
The internal contradictions within Ukraine, stoked by the west, escalated external tensions with Russia such that Russia saw the need to invade, and create a buffer between themselves and NATO.
The Baltic States love nothing more then to screech about Russian oppression, but they’re proceeding to reproduce the same internal contradictions that spiraled out and led to war in Ukraine.
My question “are they stupid?” Is rhetorical
Tl;dr - Capitalism is incapable of solving the national question
Believe me, Putin doesn’t care about Russian speaking people. The pretext could be anything. Probably it will be something like denazification, as Latvia still holds a parade for heroes of SS
