MOSCOW, January 7 Deputy Mayor of Riga Edwards Ratnieks spoke , that the organizers of a concert at a Christmas market in the Latvian capital checked in advance the content of songs in Russian by an ensemble from the Russian-speaking region of Latvia for “texts praising Russia.”
Earlier, journalist Sarmite Kolate posted on social networks a fragment of the ensemble's performance at the Christmas market in Riga, which performed songs in Russian in folk style.
Ratnieks wrote on the social network X that “such things do not cause pride,” and promised to find out from the concert organizers how songs in Russian could be included in the program of the festive concert.
Later he reported that the group performing was the female vocal ensemble of the municipal house of culture of the Audrinsky volost of the Rezekne region in eastern Latvia, where there is a large Russian-speaking population.
«»This is a minority ensemble, supported by local authorities and the state. All songs corresponded to the fair. Representatives of the fair explained that they themselves looked through the texts. There were no texts praising Russia or Putin anywhere. The language of communication during the concert: Latvian,” wrote Ratnieks.
He also emphasized that the event was not municipal, but private, and the Riga City Council did not take part in organizing the concert.
About 1.8 million people live in Latvia, of which about 40% are Russian-speaking. At the same time, Latvia has one official language – Latvian. Russian language has the status of a foreign language.