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When Latvia gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, it granted automatic citizenship to those who had lived in the first independent Latvian state - between 1918 and 1940 - but not to those who immigrated here after the war, when Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union.

There, the same policy that the Saudies follow. I see you approve. Certain gentlemen tried to use similiar things against Japanese Americans once, thankfully a really free country, ours, knocked that down.

She says her mother, who has lived in Latvia for 60 years and worked here for 45 years as a schoolteacher, has no right to vote. "She is 83 and has bad eyes. Of course she's not capable of taking any kind of exam."

How nice.

Igor Vatolin, a journalist on the newspaper Chas and a Russian rights activist, said the Latvian Popular Front, which led the fight for independence at the end of the 1980s, promised citizenship to everyone living in the republic. "But they reneged on that - even though thousands of Russians voted with them in favour of independence in the referendum of 1991," he said.

Here's the part I'm sure you approve of. I hope you're not upset he's not advocating a Arbeiten Machts Frie camp.

while the head of the Latvian parliament's foreign affairs committee, Aleksandrs Kirsteins, has described the non-citizens as "civilian occupiers". He called for an agreement with the Russian government under which all the unwanted foreigners would be herded on to trains and shipped back to their "ethnic homeland" - with a brass band playing on the platform to see them off.

Yes, I approve of the policy of not granting citizenship to those who immigrated there when it was occupied by the Soviet Union. It was the Soviet Union (which you defend) which made these people citizens, it was not Latvia.

Russians who can speak Latvian would rather turn down citizenship than accept this? Sounds like they are the ones who screwed themselves.