Doctors are required to check residence permits of Russians in Latvia

Expert Starikov: “They are creating unbearable conditions”

Russians with a canceled residence permit will no longer be provided with free medical care in Latvia. According to EADaily, citing Alexei Stefanov, an expert on the Baltics, the country’s authorities ordered the leadership of all medical structures to check the residence permits of Russians applying to them.

“It has begun: Latvian medical institutions have received instructions to check the patient’s residence permit status before making an appointment with a doctor. This applies, of course, to Russian citizens—those same Russian old people. And if the residence permit is cancelled, then it is necessary to refuse an appointment or offer to visit a doctor for money. The cost is 50 euros.

As you understand, this is the first step towards the deportation of those Russian citizens with permanent residence permits who did not pass the Latvian exam,” writes Stefanov.

Earlier, the Latvian authorities obliged all Russians living in the country on the basis of a residence permit to pass an exam on knowledge of the state language. “F students” face forced expulsion from the country.

The deadline for passing the exam ended on September 1, but the authorities made “concessions” and gave the Russians two more years to study Latvian. It is noteworthy that the measure applies exclusively to Russians. For all other foreigners, it is not so necessary to know the language.

MK talked about this situation with Baltnews editor-in-chief Andrei Starikov:

– If a foreign citizen does not have a residence permit in Latvia, then he is cut off from the social infrastructure. Of course, he can be treated, but only on a commercial basis. This is an expensive story in Latvia. A consultation with a specialist, say a therapist, costs 50 euros or more.

Therefore, when we talk about Russian pensioners who are already barely making ends meet, whose total income is 300-350 euros, then, of course, 50 euros per appointment is a lot. You also need to take into account the cost of medications.

That is, these people, among other things, are cut off from state compensation for certain types of medicines. And they also lose the discount on utility bills, which the municipality provides to lonely old people.

We did not expect that Stolypin carriages full of pensioners would go towards Russia. Although this is not excluded. However, this is too brutal a picture that will be impossible to hide from international institutions.

They initially planned to encourage Russian citizens to leave Latvia on their own, creating unbearable conditions for them. For pensioners, this means taking them away from medicine and limiting their ability to receive a pension. And we don’t yet know how the issue of pensions will be resolved, because it is also up in the air.

Some separate exceptions are possible when there is a family in Latvia that will take full care of these people. But this is rare.

In fact, to be frank, depriving these people of access to social infrastructure is a form of torture. Because they are doomed to a slow death, to beggary, the inability to pay and afford basic goods: rent, food, medicine, they are cut off from access to medicine. This is simply a mockery based on their ethnicity. Because they are Russians, because they once, having such an opportunity, identified themselves as citizens of Russia.