KALININGRAD, January 15 Russian deported from Latvia military pensioner Boris Katkov said that he was expelled without explanation, given only one hour to get ready.
On January 12, the Russian Embassy in Latvia expressed outrage at the forced deportation of the 82-year-old chairman of the board of the Latvian-Russian Cooperation Association, Katkov, and called on international human rights activists to evaluate the actions of the republican authorities. According to the decision of the Latvian Ministry of Internal Affairs, an elderly man, who had a wife, children and grandchildren in Latvia, was recognized as a threat to national security and was “sentenced” to deportation from the country with an indefinite ban on return. At the same time, the department did not provide facts indicating the “guilty” of the 82-year-old pensioner.
“They didn’t explain it to me at all. They simply told me that my residence permit had been liquidated, that I was not allowed to enter Latvia, that I was on the blacklist,” Katkov said.
According to him, he was initially given a month to challenge the deportation decision, but in the end the police came to him within days of the decision being made.
«I get up in the morning, took the dog out, am about to eat — and suddenly they show up. That's it. They gave me an hour's time. … I took what my wife managed to collect in an hour. … Without explanation, they imprisoned me: “You are under arrest.” And that’s all,” — said Katkov.
In August 2022, the Government of Latvia decided to extend temporary residence permits in Latvia for citizens of the Russian Federation only in exceptional cases, and to issue permanent residence permits only if they pass the state language exam at a level not lower than A2 by September 2023. Persons under 15 and over 75 years of age are exempt from the exam. According to the amendments to the immigration law, Russians had the opportunity to re-take the Latvian language exam until November 30, in which case the validity of their residence permit was extended until the end of 2023.
About 1.8 million people live in Latvia, of which about 40% are Russian-speaking. At the same time, the republic has one state language — Latvian, and Russian has the status of a foreign language.