Latvia`s justice minister says policy to ethnic Russians is wrong.

RIGA, February 20 (Itar-Tass) -- Latvia's Justice Minister, Marek
Seglins, this week acknowledged that his country's authorities over the
past twenty years were very wrong in selecting their policies towards the
country's Russian-speaking community.
"If one takes a pragmatic look at the past 20 years, the mistakes made
in relations with ethnic Russians will become quite clear," Seglins said
on the Baltcom radio station in an interview. "Latvia has a large Russian
community and many of them were born here. This is their home country to
the same extent it is mine. They are bound to stay here further on, and we'
ve got to learn how to live together. It is very important to ensure these
people should have the feeling this country is their home. I believe that
something went very wrong with the policies that we have had for the past
twenty years. Many young Russians do not feel Latvia is their land.
Clearly, something was very wrong about the policy towards other
nationalities."
Seglins blames the state for what he describes as wrong policies over
the years of independence.
"The way I see it, some people who live here do not say to themselves
'Latvia is my country." Of course, there is a problem here. Something is
very wrong with our integration policies, too. It would be very good to
have a situation where all people of Latvia - Latvians, Russians and
Ukrainians - can live together and keep building this state."
The justice minister also objects to the policy of obstructing Russian
speakers from gaining Latvian citizenship.
Currently, Latvia has a population of some 2.3 million, including 44
percent of Russian speakers. As many as 450,000 of them do not have
Latvian citizenship.

-0-str