This country wants to ban the Russian language in workplaces

Latvia, a former member of the Soviet Union that shares a border with Russia, wants to ban the use of the Russian language in workplaces.

A move against 'Russification'

The country's deputy prime minister and justice minister, Janis Bordans, told theDelfi news site in an article published on Saturday 13 August that the Ministry of Justice was working on amendments to the Bilingualism Restriction Law.

According to an English translation of his comments, Bordans said that the 'the long-term consequences of Russification are such that the practice of simultaneous use of Latvian and Russian in everyday communication, places of service and workplaces has become entrenched.'

The new law would reduce the prevalence of the Russian language in Latvia's public sphere. Bordans told Delfi that 'society needs to know that the Latvian language should be used for business relations, as well as for communication in the workplace.' He said, as reported by Newsweek:

It is necessary to establish a ban on the use of a language that is not the language of the European Union, in addition to the state language when selling goods or providing services. It is possible that Russian will also be excluded from telephone and banking messages.

Russian already limited in schools

In 2018, the Latvian government passed amendments to the Education Law and General Education Law that restricted Russian as a language of instruction in the country's schools, as reported by NPR.

The new law took effect in 2019 and put a greater emphasis on Latvian, with the aim that by 2021, the last three years of high school would be taught entirely in the official language of the country.

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