The mayor of Ventspils, Latvia might be charged with a fine for giving a speech in Russian. Aivars Lembergs is being investigated by the Latvian State Language Center. The mayor's fault is in addressing Russian-speaking theater-goers in Russian, without translation. This isn't the first case of such matter. Riga's mayor, Nils Usakovs, has been charged with publicly speaking Russian several times. This includes posting in Russian on social networks. Details of the scandal and an interview with the mayor of Ventspils, in Russian again, are brought to you by our reporter, Anton Lyadov.
"Of course it is wonderful when everybody..." Now they won't even let him finish a phrase in Russian. This footage is from a Latvian TV channel, the man in the blue suit and red pants is Aivars Lembergs, the mayor of a small Latvian town. He greeted his audience in Russian during his speech in the theater without, how dare he, a Latvian translation. About 40% of Latvia's population are native Russian speakers.
A few minutes of speech, and the mayor is under investigation. Even though his every word is now under a microscope, Lembergs agreed to speak to the Russian Government Channel.
- Are you afraid to speak Russian to me right now?
- No, I'm not afraid. They can't exile me further than Siberia. The play is in Russian, so I figured the audience would understand Russian. What was I supposed to do, speak Latvian with translation? To me, it just sounds ridiculous.
Regardless of how silly this seems, the accusations are serious. Mayor Lembergs is used to this sort of attacks. He's always been open in his opinions. Lembergs is one of the few Latvian politicians, that dared to say something against NATO's escalating military's actions on the Russian border.
In 2014, NATO navy ships entered his town for training purposes. There were a lot of NATO sailors at the time. Lembergs: "There was a very unpleasant incident with 2 Dutch men in a cafe. They exposed their, how do you say it... genitalia. That didn't end well. Once a sailor steps on dry land, they look for vodka and a hooker. Our town has a lot of flowers, lots of gardens. So they decided it was OK to just pluck them and to give to them women". "So they gave flowers to hookers?" "Well, it's fine, just don't pluck them from our gardens".
The Minister of Defense of Latvia, embarrassed in front of his European colleagues said he "wanted to dissociate himself from Mr. Lembergs's words." This latest scandal with the Russian language may cost the mayor 70€, or 4300 rubles. "There is an ongoing campaign to show me as... very bad. To show that I'm closer to the Kremlin than to Washington. Even though I'm not close to either. I'm closer to Latvia, to Ventspils. I'm closer to the... at least I'm trying to be... closer to adequate comprehension".
Russian language scandals are a regular occurrence in Latvia. On May 9th, 2015, Riga's mayor, Nils Usakovs delivered a speech in Russian in the Victory Park, by the Savior's Monument. "Our veterans had won! Happy Victory Day! Congratulations!" The mayor was immediately charged and investigated. A few more speeches in Russian and a German reporter asks Usakovs There are a few unsympathetic claims of you being a Russian spy. "I can formally say that my background has been cleared by the Safety Committee. I'm cleared to work as a mayor".
Usakovs has commented on this scandal with mayor Lembergs. He posted "Welcome to the club!" on his page. In English, just in case.
