MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/. The calls from Latvia’s State Language Centre on the nation to be speaking only the Latvian language at work split the society, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Alexander Lukashevich said on Saturday.

“Judging by the comments coming from Riga, that is not a strict instruction, but rather ‘recommendations’,” the high-ranking diplomat said. “Still, their trend is only evident.”

“They confirm the authorities’ general line towards discrimination of the non-titular, first of all, Russian-speaking, people,” he said.

“Callings of the kind from the state authority of the Republic of Latvia split the society and contradict with numerous recommendations from core international institutions on rights of national minorities for preserving and developing of their languages,” he said.