Edvīns Šnore, a member of the Saeima, has sent a petition to the Minister of the Interior calling for the cancellation of the residence permit of Yelena Lukjanova, whose "public activities are contrary to Latvia's national interests".
The MP believes that Lukyanova's "rhetoric is in line with Moscow's propaganda messages and is considered an element of hybrid warfare aimed at discrediting Latvia". It is clear from both Šnore’s submission and his own public statements that the MP was annoyed by the remarks made by the Russian citizen, who has a residence permit in Latvia, in a video interview broadcast on Radio Svoboda on July 20, 2022.
One might have thought that this submission by Šnore was a typical pre-election stunt. Perhaps, but this does not change the essence of the matter, because the issue of so-called good Russians and their welcome or non-welcome has become very topical.
Given the current state of the Latvian Ministry of the Interior, under the responsibility of the political alliance Development/For! (Attīstībai/Par!), Lukyanova has no reason to worry. No one will take away her residence permit. On the contrary, she and the Free University she represents will receive the support from the Latvian state the lack of which she insistently complained about in that interview. If we are talking about the statements made in that interview, the emphasis should not be on what was said, but rather on the intonation in which it was made.
The tone in which something is said is often more important than the statement itself. This is especially true of texts written by ethnic Russians, because they somehow manage to say even very mundane, everyday things in such an aggressive, intolerant, not to say rude tone that one wonders: where did all this aggression (hatred) against the whole world come from? Is it a peculiarity of the Russian language or is it a style developed over decades and hundreds of years - to perceive the world around us as a threat that one must be ready to strike back at any moment?
Lukyanova is a well-known and highly regarded academic lawyer in Russia and a ruthless critic of the Putin regime. Her legal expertise is usually logically impeccable and persuasive. Listening to her is pure pleasure - her arguments are so fluid and logically sound. But there is an underwater stone which collapses the logical constructions of almost any Russian liberal intellectual. This is the national question and the attitude towards the national "peripheries" of the Russian Empire (not even the USSR). As soon as the question even remotely touches on these issues, the Bolshevik chauvinism, which cannot be concealed by any liberal lace, creeps out.
As they say, the rich do not understand the hungry. The representative of a numerically large nation, threatened by no one, does not understand the representative of a numerically small nation, threatened by those around it. In most cases, they do not even try to understand. It is accepted as an indisputable axiom that the Russian language is greater, richer, more promising, and that every national minority (which was once within the sphere of influence of the "Russian world") must accept this dominance not only as a matter of course, but even as desirable.
Starting from this assumption, the desire of every Latvian, Ukrainian or Tajik to speak his own language and to demand knowledge of his own language from others is nothing other than an eradicable nationalism. In this interview, Lukyanova traditionally invokes Russian as one of the six UN languages spoken by a very significant part of humanity. How this rhetoric sounds in a country where the main nationality is a minority in many parts of its own country and whose language is in constant existential danger does not even occur to Lukyanova. Literally, because there are things that one cannot understand without personal experience.
Lukyanova accuses Latvia on air of not treating Russian scientists "normally". So - treats them abnormally. "We categorically don't see aid. Yes, Latvia shows no support. Yes, Latvia shows no interest..." These phrases are spoken in a tone as if Latvia had some unquestionable obligation to support and show interest in these Russian scientists.
I do not mean to suggest that Latvia should show any dislike or deliberately ignore Russian scientists, as many on social media are suggesting. I think support should be given, but... After such insistent demands, it is really hard to say - welcome to Latvia. I understand that the daughter of the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR has not known any other tone than an insistent demand from an early age, but it is time to learn to live in a world where you are just one of many...
If Russians fleeing Putin's regime don't know how to behave themselves and still want to stomp with muddy boots into someone else's apartment, demanding this and demanding that, then forgive me, but don't count on any support. Learn to behave first and then expect help, support and interest. Note that Lukyanova's interviewer - the extremely intelligent, elegant Sergei Medvedev - does not say a word to oppose the aggressive support-seeker. He nods his head in understanding.
Unfortunately, Lukyanova, with her domineering attitude towards the non-Russian peoples of the former USSR, is not alone. The well-known writer, literary scholar and publicist Dmitry Bykov is not far behind. A man of fantastic erudition, with a quite phenomenal memory, brilliantly structured thinking and an uncannily accurate vision of what is going on around him. A prodigious intellect, but on nationalism and internationalism he is completely confused.
For Bykov, the USSR is a unique project, if only because of the internationalism that prevails there. The national question in the Soviet Union, even if it may not have been completely resolved, played no significant role there. All the opponents of the regime of that time got on perfectly well on the basis of the Russian language, and there were no disagreements between them. The fact that the USSR collapsed because of national liberation movements is something that Bykov has not understood to this day.
This vision of Bykov's national question in the USSR transforms quite logically into today's vision - nationalism rearing its head everywhere, which in the eyes of Bykov, Lukyanova, Aleksei Venediktov, editor-in-chief of the radio station Ekho Moskvy and other Russian chauvinists has one main characteristic - a stubborn unwillingness of those people, who can speak Russian to some extent, to speak this "world language" and an unwillingness to recognize it as superior.
But the unwillingness of Russians or other numerically large peoples to learn the languages of smaller peoples is quite rational and self-evident - why should a user of a more widely spoken language have to learn the language of a less widely spoken people? There is no rational justification for this, except for the hated nationalism that should be eradicated in civilized people. So - stop cultivating your nationalism. Be progressive. Davai po Russki or let's speak English. ASAP.