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Looks like they are being opportunistic and trying to get this through while the emotions are high. Curious to see what will end up happening.
Latvia didn't grant automatically citizenship to Soviet immigrants who arrived during occupation. To get a Latvian passport they were required to pass a language and history test. But many immigrants decided to acquire Russian citizenship instead because the retirement age for Russian citizens was lower.
Now some of those people are in trouble because Latvia requires language test for permanent residents and if they fail to pass it, they can be deported to the country of their citizenship – Russia. In fact, it is very hard to learn a language once you have reached retirement age. But they made their choice where their loyalties are. Those who remain non-citizens of Latvia (a special status) are safe as they have practically the same rights as citizens and cannot be deported.
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It is mostly about stopping providing public services in Russian. The main goal is to strengthen the use of Latvian language. The EU will not stop this as they leave linguistic matters to each member country to decide.
During the Soviet times everyone in Latvia had to speak Russian to effectively participate in the society. Now it is not the case and most young people don't speak Russian anymore. But the tradition to provide services in both Latvian and Russian limits their job opportunities, especially in the lowest paid jobs in customer service sector. The rule will simply make sure that there is no expectation that one can get public services in Russian. Most Russian speakers also speak Latvian to some degree, so it should not be a practical problem.
Russians demanding that they should be able to speak Russian everywhere and not required to learn a local language even if they become residents in Latvia, are arrogant and misguided.
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