Now, while most of Rural Latvia and Estonia are populated by Latvians and Estonians, the area around the actual border is not. In the days of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Leadership preferred Russians in those areas and this those areas are populated by Russians. While into the 1950s the Soviet Union was fighting resistance groups in both countries and wanted to contain the rural areas where most of the resistance was fighting.
Thus these fringe rural areas tend to be Russian Speaking, but most Russian Speakers live in the cities of all three Countries.
Lithuania has the smallest Russian Speaking population, for it bordered Poland not Russia (and remains Catholic like Poland unlike Latvia and Estonia which are Lutheran). Thus Russia has had little problems with Lithuania (In 1989 Russian speakers in Lithuania was only 9.4% of the population).
On the other hand Latvia (in 1998 had just under 50% Russian Speakers) and Estonia (in 1989 had about 33% Russian Speakers) have been a problem for Russia, for both countries retain a large Russian Speaking Minority.
Today, 4.9% of people living in Lithuania speak Russia
27% of people living in Latvia are native Russian Speakers
24% of people living in Estonia are native Russian Speakers
Concentrations of Russia speakers tend to be in certain cities"
Lithuanian Russians live mainly in cities. In the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, they make up 14.43% of the population, in Lithuania's third largest city Klaipėda no more than 19%. Other Lithuanian cities, including the second-largest city Kaunas, have lower percentages of Russians, while in most small towns and villages there are very few Russians (with the exception of Visaginas town). In all, 4.9% of Lithuania's population are ethnic Russians.
Russians make up almost a half of the population of Latvia's capital, Riga. In the second largest city Daugavpils, where already before World War I Russians were the second biggest ethnic group after Jews,[8] Russians now make up the majority. Today about 27.6% of Latvia's population are ethnic Russians.
In Estonia, Russians are concentrated in urban areas, particularly in Tallinn and the north-eastern county of Ida-Virumaa. As of 2011, 38.5% of Tallinn's population were ethnic Russians and an even higher number – 46.7% spoke Russian as their mother tongue.[9] In 2011, large proportions of ethnic Russians were found in Narva (82.02%),[10] Sillamäe (about 82%)[11] and Kohtla-Järve (69.68%). In the second largest city of Estonia – Tartu – ethnic Russians constitute only about 16% of the population.[12] In rural areas the proportion of ethnic Russians is very low (13 of Estonia's 15 counties are over 80% ethnic Estonian). Overall, ethnic Russians make up 24% of Estonia's population (the proportion of Russophones is, however, somewhat higher, because Russian is the mother tongue of many ethnic Ukrainians, Belarusians and Jews who live in the country).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russians_in_the_Baltic_statesAbout 18% of the population of Latvia are "Non-Citizens" of Latvia, these are people who moved to Latvia in Soviet days or their descendants.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-citizens_(Latvia)#Politics_of_citizenship
To be a Citizen of Estonia you have to have a working knowledge of Estonia, born to an Estonian (or fathered by an Estonian) or married to a citizen. Notice, if you speak Russian and married someone who speaks Ukrainian, but neither of you can trace your family back to pre 1939 Estonia, you are a "Non-citizen" of Estonia even if your family has lived in Estonia since 1940.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_nationality_law#By_naturalisation
Thus you have a large population in Estonia and Latvia that can NOT be citizens of those countries, no matter how long they AND their family have lived in both countries.
This is complicated by the Citizenship law of the Russian Federation, which grants automatic citizenship to any former resident of the Soviet Union upon request (i.e. just ask and if you had been a citizen of the Soviet Union you become a Citizen of the Russian Federation).
Now, the Russian rule is defined in two statutes, one passed in 1999 and the other in 2002. The first has not court case but is the law in question for it gives citizenship to any former Soviet Citizen AND their decedents. In 2002 this was NOT repealed but appears to have been assumed when the present law was adopted:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizenship_of_Russia#Citizenship_act_of_2002
Latvia and Estonia have a problem, they want to get rid of their Russian Speaking Minority but how to do that without being accused of Ethnic Cleansing? Thus these "Non-Citizens" are denied the right to vote but are otherwise left along, at least according to Western news account (Russian News Account states otherwise). These Russian speaking minorities are to large to ignore AND to large to be permitted to vote. Thus the laws discriminating against them and the Russian Federation complaints about how Russian Speakers are being treated in those two countries.
= new reply since forum marked as read
