The Latvian Seimas adopted in the first reading and submitted to the commissions a bill that would increase fines for violating the law on the state (Latvian) language to 10,000 euros in some cases. On Thursday, May 25, the portal Delfi. Lv. The purpose of the amendments to the annotation of the draft law is to eliminate the "unreasonable use of other languages", as well as economic growth through penalties collected. The bill was supported by 58 deputies, 20 deputies opposed, two did not participate in the voting. The document, in particular, suggests an increase in the fine for "open disrespect for the state language". Now it is up to 350 euros, it should increase to 700 euros. For officials, a fine of up to 250-700 euros is envisaged with the possibility of losing a post, and for legal persons up to 10,000 euros. The penalty for not using the state language in the amount provided for in official duties will be increased from 35 to 280 euros, if repeated such violation within a year the fine will amount to 280 to 700 euros. At the same time, it is proposed for a public official to increase the fine to 350-700 euros with the possibility of dismissal. Mayor of Riga Nil Ushakov on his Facebook page laughed the initiative of nationalists. "Some countries are still foolishly trying to develop, for example, production. They, naive, do not understand that it is much easier to raise the economy with fines for the language, "wrote the mayor. In Latvia live two million people, about 40 percent of which are Russian-speaking.

Of these, 300 thousand non-citizens. This status after the collapse of the USSR was received by those who arrived in the country after Latvia joined the Soviet Union in 1940. This period, the current authorities of the republic called the occupation. The rights of non-citizens in the republic are limited. The average salary in Latvia after paying taxes is about 600 euros.

Original article: Latvia decided to increase fines for Russian for economic growth.