Addressing a plenary session of the OSCE's thirteenth economic forum, Fedotov stressed that 460,000 Latvian residents and 150,000 Estonian residents had discriminatory non-citizen status.
According to Fedotov, non-citizens are not allowed to vote, facing other similar restrictions. The same concerns their work at local institutions of state authority, job-hunting and real-estate purchases.
"The Russian language lacks any official status even where Russian-speaking diasporas account for 50 percent of the entire local population and more. This situation differs greatly from that in most European countries. The Russian-language education system is being steadily abolished," Fedotov noted.
In his words, Russia's state policy attaches priority to protecting the rights and interests of ethnic minorities.
"Many Russian territories grant official-language status to Russian and local national languages. Moreover, 9.9 percent of all Russian schools offer national-language education programs. Another 16.4 percent teach such languages as a subject," Fedotov said in conclusion.
