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Russian pupils demonstrated below the window of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities


This morning in Riga Russian pupils demonstrated for one hour in front of the hotel, which the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Rolf Ekeus stays in. About one hundred teenagers took part in the action, calling out: пїЅTake your hands away from our schools!пїЅ Besides, the protesting pupils handed over documents about the proceeding school reform to the High Commissioner.

Just this school reform, which started on September 1st, was the occasion of the European officialпїЅs visit to Riga. Thanks to the reform an enormous part of the lessons of the higher classes will be held in Latvian. This has already evoked a lot of mass actions among the local Russian speaking population, which constitutes about 40% of the countryпїЅs population.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already published a declaration, emphasizing that Moscow пїЅwelcomes the decision of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Rolf Ekeus to carry out an inspection in Latvia, including a private message from the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, in which he expresses his wishes.пїЅ

ItпїЅs not the first time that the High Commissioner is confronted with such protest actions of Russian pupils in Latvia. Last year they organized a similar demonstration, during which the police arrested several activists. This displeased the High Commissioner as well as the local public, informs ITAR-TASS.



Source: Izvestia.RU

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