Moscow will welcome with open arms the more than 800 Russian citizens shown the door by Latvia for failing to comply with new immigration rules.
“If they are Russian citizens … they can come back to their Motherland, to Russia. And build a life here,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
His comments came after POLITICO reported late last week that authorities in the Baltic country had ordered 841 Russians to leave the country by Oct. 13 for failing to prove their Latvian language proficiency, pass a security screening and apply for long-term resident status in time.
The effective deportation of hundreds of Russians is likely to be spun by the Kremlin as proof of Europe’s — and particularly the Baltic countries’ — hostility toward their neighbor and its citizens.
Earlier on Monday, Irina Volk, a spokesperson for Russia’s interior ministry, said the Russian authorities had prepared “a set of measures” to help the affected group “settle and adapt.”
“Upon arrival in Russia, they will be provided with comprehensive assistance,” Volk wrote in a post on Telegram.
The interior ministry was not reachable by telephone for details on what those measures entailed.
After Russia’s full-scale attack against Ukraine in 2022, Latvia tightened the rules for Russian citizens living in the country.
According to Madara Puķe, head of public relations at Latvia’s Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA), some 30,000 Russians have been affected by the stricter rules. About 2,600 of them have already left Latvia voluntarily, she said.
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