It is not surprising that this Baltic state, EU’s rotating president at the moment, is making such noises.
For more than 200 years there have been many Russians living in Latvia; at the moment, they account for circa 25% of the population. After regaining its independency from the former USSR, oppression of Russian inhabitants in Latvia increased. For half a year now all residents have to speak only the Latvian language, use of the Russian language has been prohibited. The Latvian parliament approved a law that no radio station in the country will be allowed to broadcast their programs in Russian from 2016. A few weeks ago the chief of the Security Police stated that the Orthodox Church of Latvia was an agent of the Kremlin.
Rinkevic’s comparison of Russia with Nazi Germany is really shocking. After their invasion of Latvia in 1941 the Nazi’s eliminated almost the entire Jewish population within half a year, with the cooperation of Latvian collaborators, the Arajs Commando.
The Council of Europe, always standing in the breach of suppressed minorities in CoE member states, didn’t comment about the recent discriminating regulation in Latvia. Nor did it when comparable official offences against Russian minorities took place in the other two Baltic States, Estonia and Lithuania.
And the European Union? The Nordic States already agreed to combine their military forces to be prepared for a Russian invasion. Commission President Juncker wants an EU army to defend his Union against the threat coming from the East. And let’s not forget European Council President Tusk: since he started in this function half a year ago, he has spoken of not much more than Russia.
NATO, under the strong leadership of the US, has strengthened its military presence in EU countries along the Russian border for the same reason. Who is afraid of whom? The Russian military budget is more or less 10% of that of NATO. If it wasn’t so serious, it would be laughable.
