Russia interferes with Latvian election campaign

Moscow's mayor Yury Luzhkov has called for Latvia to become a bilingual state during a visit to Riga. The daily Latvijas Avīze accuses him of interfering with the Latvian election campaign: "The message that fortifying the role of Russians in Latvia is a recipe for economic recovery came as no great surprise because even Latvian politicians have been known to say this every now and then. Naturally Luzhkov is neither Putin nor Medvedev, but he is one of the leading personalities of the Kremlin's United Russia party, and such high-ranking politicians tend not to make statements without having carefully weighed up the consequences. At this point we should recall that United Russia has signed a cooperation agreement with the party Harmony Centre party [of the Russian minority] which leads the opinion polls at present. This is the context in which we should assess Luzhkov's words."

» full article (external link, Latvian)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Domestic Policy, » Integration, » Minorities, » Languages, » Latvia, » Russia
All available articles from » Aija Cālīte-Dulevska

» To the complete press review of Monday, August 30, 2010