Overview

• Lawmakers scheduled the statement for a Thursday plenary session, according to Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin.
• The draft, prepared on Volodin’s instruction and submitted by the committee on CIS affairs, denounces what it calls discriminatory policy toward Russians living in Latvia.
• Deputies propose recommending that the Russian government develop response measures and urge wider international condemnation, according to the draft text.
• Latvian authorities set a deadline for a Latvian-language exam and consider deportation procedures lawful for Russian citizens who did not demonstrate sufficient proficiency.
• Russian officials say those at risk include long-term residents, many of pension age, who kept Russian as their native language.