RigaRIGA, Feb 9The decision of the court of the Vidzeme suburb of Riga to sentence to 1.5 years in prison conditionally a publicist and public figure, defender of Russian schools Alexander Gaponenko is a verdict of the Latvian Themis itself, confirming its partiality and politicization, the statement of the Russian Embassy in Latvia on the Facebook page says. On the outskirts of Riga, publicist and public figure Alexander Gaponenko was sentenced to one and a half years of suspended imprisonment with probationary control for two years, journalist Alla Berezovskaya, a friend of the defendant, said. He was accused of inciting enmity or hatred on the grounds of racial, ethnic and national affiliation. «Today's verdict against A. Gaponenko, a well-known public figure, publicist, human rights activist and fighter against manifestations of neo-Nazism in the Baltic States, is a verdict of the Latvian Themis itself, confirming its partiality and politicization. It's a pity that the Latvian authorities, who so closely monitor the observance of human rights and freedom of speech in other countries, openly neglect them in their own state! — the embassy said in a statement. On April 20, 2018, Gaponenko was detained by the Security Police (PB) as part of the criminal proceedings initiated on April 4 of the same year on actions directed against state sovereignty, territorial integrity of Latvia, state power or the state system. The Saeima of Latvia on March 22 2018, adopted amendments to the laws on education, providing that from the 2019-2020 academic year, a gradual transition to teaching in the Latvian language at the secondary school stage in schools of national minorities will begin. A full transfer to study in the Latvian language is carried out from September 1, 2021. In Latvia, one state language is Latvian. About 40% of Russian-speaking residents live in the republic. The Russian language has the status of a foreign language.
