Rusland wil garanties dat Letland rechten van russische minderheid respecteert (en)

The Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov has called on Latvia to offer legal rights to the Russian-speaking minority of the country.

In an article published by the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, Mr Ivanov said Russia had been assured that a positive solution could be taken for granted, with Latvia entering the EU and NATO.

"We would like to believe this, but frankly it is hard to believe with just a few months to go before the accession [to the EU] is a fact and with no positive signs from Riga yet", the Russian foreign minister wrote.

In total, 40 percent of the people in Latvia are estimated to speak Russian as their mother tongue and around half a million people in Latvia - making up some 20 percent of the population - have a non-citizen status.

"A similar quota of non-citizens exists neither in Europe nor the World", Mr Ivanov argues.

In 2003 only ten thousand Russians gained Latvian citizenship, according to the Russian foreign minister, who also points out that Riga has not ratified the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

"It is not hard to imagine how many decades will be needed to get all formalities concerning citizenship for non-citizens solved, when the Latvian leaders do not show the political will to solve the problems fully", he wrote.

The letter was posted in the Swedish daily ahead of the Swedish foreign minister Laila Freivald's visit to Moscow.

Mrs Freivalds, who was born in Latvia, said to Dagens Nyheter, "Ivanov's criticism is groundless. One cannot argue that Latvia is not living up to commitments concerning the Russian minority".

Russia is threatening not to sign partnership and cooperation agreements with the new EU member states, because the treatment of Russian minorities in some countries does not meet the standards promised by the EU.