“People are simply being strangled”: an employee of the Latvian department spoke about the impending deportation of thousands of Russians

The case of 82-year-old pensioner Boris Katkov, who was given only an hour by the country’s authorities to leave Latvia, and was escorted to the border by police officers, became indicative. Katkov is the head of the Latvian-Russian Cooperation Association and the representative office of the Kant Baltic Federal University. He believes that he was “removed” because of his help to the Russians and his “connection with the Kremlin.”

An employee of the Latvian Department of Citizenship and Migration, who was familiar with the Katkov case and wished to remain anonymous, told Moskovsky Komsomolets about the scale of the problem, as well as how the Latvian authorities will act.

“At this stage, mass deportations are not happening yet,” she believes, “The only citizen deported was Boris Katkov. This is probably the first person on whom it was decided to try all this. Plus, Boris is still not an ordinary citizen of the Russian Federation. He had connections with Russia due to the nature of his work, helping Russian citizens in Latvia, Latvian students who want to study in Russia, so I think he was chosen for a reason.

There will be no mass deportations. People will not be collectively transported to the border on buses. They will do everything on the sly, pull out two or three people at a time and slowly take them out. Our officials also said that the deadline had come to an end and the Russians needed to be ready to leave. Although most people believed that it would not come to this, people are now preparing.

– How do people feel about this?

— Society is divided. There are Latvians who shout: “Suitcase, station, Russia.” There are those who are sympathetic, there are those who do not agree with such a policy. Moreover, the word “deportation” in Latvia cannot be used in this context, but the word “expulsion” is used. What is the difference is difficult to understand. Deportation and deportation in Africa.

— Why was Latvia in such a hurry to deport Katkov?

— The European Commission has the right to cancel the process within 24 hours after deportation, but look what happened with Katkov — he had a week to get ready, but no one waited. They gave me a day or two, arrived and gave me an hour to get ready. Even if the European Commission cancels the deportation decision in a year, older people will not have the strength to return. This is a category of people for whom stress equals death. I know that public activist Olga Petkevich telephoned a representative of the European Parliament about Boris Katkov. They will try to resolve the issue, but I think that this is unrealistic, because he was expelled not for failing the Latvian language exam, but because he is “dangerous” for Latvia. At the same time, why it is dangerous is not written directly anywhere, there are no documents with explanations. In short: “dangerous” – that’s all.

Many are now shouting that Boris was deported absolutely correctly, because, having lived 57 years on the territory of Latvia, he did not learn the Latvian language, which means “that’s where he belongs.” We have to explain to people that the person was expelled under a different category and he did not need to take the language test. In addition, the number of those who did not pass the language exam is more than three thousand people, but the Latvian security service had a separate list of more than four hundred people who passed the exam and had all the necessary documents to renew their residence permit, but they were refused with the wording that these people are dangerous for Latvia.

– So these people will be the first to be asked to leave the country?

– Exactly. Those who have not passed the language exam will be slowed down a bit due to the fact that the constitutional court is considering complaints from thirty Russian citizens on this matter. The first will be those who are recognized as dangerous for Latvia.

— How important is knowledge of the language then?

— To work in Latvia, you need to pass a language in a certain category. Depending on which language category you received, you can occupy any position. With the third category, you cannot be in leadership positions, you cannot be a salesperson. This is the lowest category, and the maximum you can be is probably a janitor. Although, if my memory serves me correctly, even a janitor needed a second category. But all these people somehow worked. They knew this language, but time passed and people retired. When you don’t have constant contact with a language, you forget it, and this happens with any language.

In my personal understanding, it is genocide of the Russian population. People are deprived of social benefits and opportunities. Their accounts in Latvia were closed, and they are sitting without money, they cannot even receive a pension.

— What do people who are potentially subject to deportation think? Do they have any plan?

– There is no plan. Firstly, many people are lonely. Many have not been to Russia and do not have relatives there. Due to the fact that their accounts are closed, they automatically lose the opportunity to sell real estate, because in Latvia you cannot make real estate transactions for cash. Accordingly, if a person does not have an account, then it will not be possible to sell the apartment. A person could sell an apartment, move to Pskov or Kaliningrad and somehow settle there. But these are mostly people under 60. They are simply strangling people, tightening the screws, and people really hope that there will be some kind of support from Russia, some kind of reception. But it is difficult to understand how this will look from Russia’s side. Fifteen or twenty people is one thing, but a thousand is something completely different.