The Minister of Interior of Latvia, Rihards Kozlovskis, has said that it is still very unclear how many Russians with invalid residence permits will be expelled from the country.
Data provided by the Latvian authorities show that on January 3 of this year, the permanent residence permits of a total of 1,213 Russian citizens expired.
This means that 1,213 Russians might be expelled, but Minister Kozlovskis stressed that the exact number of Russian citizens who will be forced to leave the country due to the lack of residence permits is still unknown.
According to LSM, Minister Kozlovskis said that prior to the authorities revealing the total number of Russians that will be forced to leave Latvia, they need to check how many individuals have already left the country.
Minister Kozlovskis said that the authorities are able to detect the number of Russians who have left Latvia for third countries. However, he emphasised that it is more difficult to tell who entered another Schengen Area country.
One would be to travel through the external border from Latvia to third countries, which we can detect. Another question is whether these people have the opportunity to stay in another European Union country, the Schengen area.
Since Latvia does not have internal border checks with its neighbouring Schengen countries, Russians can cross the border undetected. Due to this, Minister Kozlovskis noted that Latvia does not rule out the possibility of introducing internal border controls to keep the movement of Russian citizens in check.
In addition to the above-mentioned, LSM explains that Minister Kozlovskis said that it would be important to send a letter of notice informing the authorities about leaving the declared place of residence.
Minister Kozlovskis further stressed that the Border Guard of Latvia continues to carry out controls and, at the same time, stressed that there is currently a lot of uncertainty about the number of Russian citizens who have left or who remain in Latvia.
The State Border Guard also continues immigration controls. It’s going to be a work process that’s associated with a lot of uncertainty for now.
In December of last year, the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs said that all Russians who did not submit the required documents for a residence permit would soon be expelled.
In line with the current rules that Latvia has, foreigners, including citizens of Russia applying for a residence permit, must have knowledge of the Latvian language at the A2 level.
Those who provide a valid reason for not taking the language test can also apply for a residence permit.
