Russia condemns Latvia's language policy

MOSCOW, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Russia's Foreign Ministry accused Latvia Saturday of violating the rights of ethnic minorities by toughening its native language policy.

RIA Novosti reported Saturday that Latvian President Valdis Zatlers recently signed amendments to the Administrative Violations Code, which raised fines for the use of non-official languages by employers and employees.

"It is obvious that such discriminatory moves violate the rights of ethnic minorities, which are generally acknowledged in present-day Europe, and aim to further displace the Russian language native for one third of the Latvian population from all fields of public and business activity," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko was quoted as saying.

The news service reported that in Latvia, where Russian speakers account for at least 30 percent of the population, the government treats Russian as a foreign language.