Today news:

 President of Russia Dmitriy Medvedev established a commission to combat history falsification attempts

Chas reports that the number of Internet comments inciting to ethnic hatred grows because of economic crisis as commentators blame Russians or ethnic Latvians for deepening crisis in the country. Presently, the Security Police is investigating a case against two persons for placing threatening comments against Russians. According to a representative of the Secretariat of the Special Assignments Minister for Electronic Government Affairs, the state does not have its own program for fighting ethnic hate speech on the Internet, therefore, NGOs are more active in this field.

Chas prints an interview with the Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis. According to Mr. Dombrovskis, politics in Latvia is divided along ethnic lines. At the same time, while possible inclusion of the Concord Centre into the governing coalition was seriously evaluated, some right-wing parties opposed it. The Prime Minister believes that problem of non-citizenship in Latvia should be solved by more active naturalisation. Mr. Dombrovskis believes that the naturalisation process and the tests are not complicated.

The President of Russia Dmitriy Medvedev established a commission to combat history falsification attempts. Russian government also is preparing a draft law on combating rehabilitation of Nazism, Nazi criminals and their accomplices in ex-Soviet republics. The draft law stipulates punishment for Russian citizens and foreigners, while foreign countries arbitrary revising results of WWII might face diplomatic sanctions. Vesti Segodnya, Chas, Latvijas Avize

For further information:

Latvian Centre for Human Rights