VILNIUS, December 28. /TASS/. Latvia intends to deport more than 1,200 Russian citizens who allegedly failed to regularize their legal status in the Baltic country by certain deadlines, according to lsm.lv, the website of Latvia’s national state television and radio broadcaster.
"Before the expiration of the allotted period on November 30, 1,213 people did not submit documents for obtaining any residence permit in Latvia. They must leave the territory of Latvia," the statement says.
According to the website, the Latvian Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs has information that 904 people from this category have already crossed the border of Latvia, that is, they have left the country.
The relevant Latvian immigration law stipulates that permanent residency permits issued to Russian citizens ceased to be valid in September 2023. To continue to remain in Latvia, holders of such permanent residency permits were required to apply for permanent resident status in the European Union. To obtain it, they had to provide proof of a minimum level of knowledge of the state language, Latvian, and the availability of sufficient financial resources to support themselves while living in the Baltic state.
As the Russian embassy in Riga noted, the draconian immigration policy being pursued by the Latvian government is seen as a deliberate ploy to settle old scores with ethnic Russian residents of Latvia, many of whom have lived their entire lives in the Baltic country but who are seen as "occupiers" by many ethnic Latvians. The embassy stressed that if the Latvian authorities continue to exacerbate the tense situation further, then it could be deemed, without any exaggeration, as a case of genocide, defined as the oppression of a group of people solely on the basis of their nationality or ethnicity.