Comments by "duncan smith" (@duncansmith7562) on "How Russian propaganda aims to divide Latvian society | Focus on Europe" video.

  1.  @crocolagerfelden6142  It's not a case of making Russian an official language of the state. Russian has been an official language of Latvia for a long time. The question is why would any government remove existing rights for Russian to be an official language? Why would Canada remove French as an official state language? Why would Switzerland remove French as an official state language? The only reason would be to enrage and alienate a large chunk of the native population. No one in Russian speaks Latvian. Eastern Latvia has a majority of the population as Russian speakers. Why should Russian speakers leave anywhere? You might as well ask why French speaking Swiss don't just leave and go to France? Curious how you advocate restriction of rights on the Russian speakers of the world but not on any other minority language group on the planet. Russophobia has claimed you as yet another victim.
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  2. The biggest wedge being driven through Latvian society is done so not by Russia, but by nationalists in the Latvian government. When both Russian and Latvian are treated as equal languages, and Russian culture allowed free expression, then Latvia will be a more united and happier place.
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  3. "messages of fear" = messages of hope for many of the marginalized Russian speakers of the Baltics.
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  4.  @wilhelmu  the vast culture of which the likes of you are ignorant
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  5. "they use Russian language in their households" = they are obliged not to use Russian in public life. therein lies the problem.
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  6.  @crocolagerfelden6142  1) Latvia, where a man was jailed for trampling on the Ukrainian flag. Freedom of expression repressed in Latvia. 2) The number of Latvian speakers in Russia can be counted on one hand. The number of Russian speakers in Latvia is about 25% of the total population. Less than 25% of Canadians speak French as their mother tongue, but French is accepted as an official language of Canada. So, do you recommend Canada rescind all rights to its French speakers to use French in education and government? If you did, you would see riots and revolution in Canada. 3) Russians are happy to use English when travelling abroad, which they still do. Russian speakers are not happy to be forbidden from using their mother tongue in communities where they form the majority, and neither would you be. Get real.
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