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The Latvian Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA) has sent notifications to 841 Russian citizens stating that they must leave the country by Oct. 13, Public Broadcasting of Latvia (LSM) reported. According to the agency, these individuals failed to submit the necessary documents to obtain a residence permit in line with the 2024 amendments to the country’s Immigration Law.
According to the broadcast, this group of Russian citizens had also missed the deadline to apply to take a required Latvian language exam. Maira Roze, the head of OCMA, noted that some of those who received notifications “had heard or seen nothing,” and had only realized something was wrong when their pensions stopped being paid.
Representatives of the Immigration Service of the State Border Guard are conducting inspections of the Russian nationals who did not respond to the OCMA’s call. According to Lieutenant Colonel Gatis Rūža, head of the Riga Service of the State Border Guard, the majority of individuals whose residence permits are no longer valid have already left the country.
If an offending Russian citizen is found at their place of residence, they are held administratively liable, and deportation proceedings are initiated. The person is either placed in a detention center for foreign nationals, or — if humanitarian circumstances apply — they are allowed to remain at their place of residence until deportation.
Amendments to the Immigration Law were adopted three years ago and affected 25,300 Russian citizens. The majority — 16,000 people — obtained EU permanent resident permits, roughly 1,000 received temporary residence permits, and 2,600 chose to leave. To date, Latvia has deported only 10 Russians.
In July, Russian national Vladislav Romanenko, who had lived in Latvia for eight years, was banned from the country for “spreading communist ideas,” which in Latvia are considered unconstitutional. He was also found to harbor “ties with foreign extremist organizations” and to have participated in “activities threatening Latvia’s national security and public order.” Romanenko maintains that his interest in Marxism is purely academic and that he does not endorse the Soviet Union’s policies in Latvia, which are now officially regarded there as an occupation.