Vladimir, a non EU citizen

Vladimir Linderman is a European non citizen. Thanks to an accident of politics and in sharp contrast of one of the most basic human rights, he belongs to no nation and is citizen of none. Although he was born and has lived all his life in Latvia, when the country regained independence in 1991, he, along with hundreds of thousands of residents of the Baltic states were not granted citizenship. In fact all people, families and children who moved there between 1940 and 1991 and their descendants, as if this part of the history was erased as a side effect of regaining sovereignty, saw their nationality erased too.
18% of the population of Latvia are "non citizens" and although they pay taxes they are deprived of political rights and do not have equal job opportunities with the real citizens of the Baltic countries. For example they cannot be firemen or captain or many other professions in a list of special restrictions tailored for them.
Vladimir has been an active citizen, demanding the simple thing, even the less privileged people enjoy, nationality. He has been badly persecuted, accused for crimes he did not commit, forced to leave the country, send to prison until acquitted and recently, when returning from Finland where he came invited by politicians, even not allowed passage through Estonia, as persona non grata and had to return to Finland.
This is when we met, introducad by Oksana Chelyseva, a Russian journalist and human right activist.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• EU
• human
• rights
• political
• vote
• Latvia
• news
• commentary
• analysis
• nationality
• Baltic
• activists
• Russia
• democracy
• jobs
• Europe
• Estonia
• finland
• asylum
• crime
• country
• prison
• provocation
• persecution
• police
• secret
• civil
• society
• oksana
• chelyseva
• national
• ethnicity
• minority
• ethnic
• nationalism
• fanatics
• European
• Europa
• OSCE
• security
• international
• crisis
• tension

[phildrag]

I am not really interested in the beliefs of this person. What surprises me is that there is a significant number of non-citizens in certain European countries, for whatever reason. This fact alone in contairy to European law and human rights. Everybody has the right to nationality and citizenship, even if a criminal himself or whatever activities , beliefs he may have.

[sinalp2]

bs. They have to learn local language, do basic exam and after that they will get their rights and passport. But ppl who live there about 40 yrs and know only few words . Its bs. So go and learn local language , culture.

And there should b a reason why he is not allowed to go Estonia.

[phildrag]

Actually, Vladimir knows the latvian language to the extent that he was able to translate a book from Latvian into Russian while being kept in custody in Riga prison

His children know the language too but only one of them (the youngest) is a citizen of Latvia

[phildrag]

κι ομως αληθινό...δεν ειναι από τα πιό απαράδεκτα πράγματα πού εχεις ακούσει? τον άνθρωπο τον κατατρέχουν μια ζωή.

[40bcoots]

Nothing stopping him from going home to ruSSia..except putin. Obviously Latvia doesn't want him.

Mr phildrag.. the Baltics want their independence maintained .. not the russification of its territories.

[13krisjanis]

This interview does not contribute to the understanding of the situation of non-citizens in Latvia. He has been prosecuted for illegal possession of firearms and explosives. Might I add that this person is a radical national bolshevik, and it is quite logical that sentiments towards this movement are negative because in essence national bolshevism is very similar to national socialism (the one that Hitler preached). You didn't touch upon any of the controversial questions of this problem.

[jnssku1]

@HotDog12ist

[UndeadCrabstick]

@phildrag well - in Latvia you get citisentship just by studying latvian history and learning to speak latvian. It is not that hard.

[CarlVonNirgendwo]

funny how they never mention hes a national bolsevik

[SuperSami013000]

that fucking mother fucker is trying to make some changes in Latvia.!!! he is a very horroble person!! someone need to kill him!! NOW

[TorrioARM]

GO AND KILL YOUR SELF YOU JEW !

[sniegaviirs24]

jews leave us alone, go back to israel !!!!

[Tomszirnis2]

People like this man - Linderman - is the reason why Latvia might not have a bright future. Adding Russian as a 2nd language has ruined other small european countries. These countries now speak Russian, not their own Languages! We Latvians are strong, and we will do anything to fight injustice like this! We will fight and we will win! We are Latvians , and all you non citizens, if you want to be citizens, go back to Russia!

[Melomaniacable]

kas tas par tetāri?? o_O

[vieglins]

Linderman - *uck off!

[HotDog12ist]

Its very sad for me to know that there are some idiots, who spread all this abroad.. making a bad reputation for Latvia, none of this is true. Phildrag, please dont belive everything you are being told...