Vyacheslav Volodin has accused Latvian officials of “genocide” for deciding to deport Russian pensioners
Officials in Latvia who decided to deport Russian pensioners deserve execution, a top Russian lawmaker said on Friday, comparing officials in Riga to those of Nazi Germany.
Latvian authorities last month ordered the deportation of 841 Russian citizens, citing their failure to take or pass a mandatory language test. Some, due to their advanced age, were reportedly not even aware that the regulation applied to them.
Addressing a plenary session of the Duma, Russia’s parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin reminded Latvian officials that their Nazi predecessors eventually had to face justice at the Nuremberg Trials.
”Those who adopted and signed this should know that this will affect them sooner or later, just as it affected fascist Germany those who killed engaged in discrimination and genocide,” Volodin said.
“In the end, they all faced the gallows. The same gallows awaits those who made the decision in relation to the elderly pensioners, our compatriots, deporting them from Latvia,” he added.
Since independence in 1991, Latvia has denied citizenship to a significant portion of its Russian population, issuing “non-citizen passports,” which bar holders from voting and for certain jobs. Russian speakers currently comprise about 25% of Latvia’s total population.
The Citizenship and Migration Affairs Office of Latvia sent notifications to hundreds of Russian citizens who it accuses of failing to demonstrate proficiency in Latvian before a deadline set by a 2022 immigration law, under which they had until October 13 to leave voluntarily or face deportation.
Of the 30,000 people affected, most fulfilled the requirements, while some 2,600 left the country voluntarily, according to RIA Novosti. However, 841 people did not submit an application for resident status in time.
Latvia has increasingly targeted its Russian minority since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. The Baltic nation has imposed sweeping travel restrictions for Russian nationals, banned multiple Russian-language media outlets and stopped providing education in the language.
