"I can say that the subject of the Russian-speaking population in the Baltic countries, and in the given situation I mean Latvia and Estonia, has been an undeniable part of the Russia-EU dialog for the last few years," the deputy minister said. "It will continue until the relevant problems are solved." Chizhov reminded journalists that Moscow had a series of concerns in light of the European Union's enlargement. He said that the EU had acknowledged the grounds for the concerns and expressed its willingness to conduct negotiations. He added that the talks were being conducted and details were being added to the list of concerns.
The talks being held concern 14 issues, such as trade and economic relations, but there are other as well. "These are a series of visa problems with account of agreements on establishing a visa-free system in the long-term," Mr. Chizhov said, "while the others are our concerns about the situation of the Russian-speaking population in Latvia and Estonia, which are set to become European Union members." "Over the past few years, we have warned the European Union on many occasions that if it or the Baltic countries' governments does not adopt measures to change the situation," he said, "then this problem will damage Russia-EU relations whether we like it or not." "We are conducting this dialog with the European Union, individual EU countries and, of course, directly with Riga and Tallinn," Mr. Chizhov said.
