Latvian President opposed to granting Russian 2nd official language status.

Interfax - President Andris Berzins of Latvia, currently in Poland on a visit, has cast his ballot against granting Russian the status of a second official language in Latvia.
His press secretary, Liga Krapane, told the BNS news agency earlier today that the Latvian leader had voted in the Latvian Embassy.

He is expected to make a statement on the referendum returns tomorrow morning.

To note, Latvians are voting in a referendum on whether to make Russian the country's second official language.

The referendum is widely expected to fail but has exposed deep fault-lines in Latvia, two decades after its split from the Soviet Union.

Ethnic Russians make up around a third of Latvia's two million population, and have long complained of discrimination.

But many ethnic Latvians believe the referendum is an attempt to encroach on the country's independence.

Learning Latvian was a prerequisite for citizenship in the years after the country split from the Soviet Union.

But many Russian-speakers resisted, and some 300,000 remain without citizenship, which means they cannot vote in elections, hold public office or work in government institutions, the Associated Press reports.

Saturday's referendum was initiated by the Russian-speakers' movement, Native Tongue, which collected signatures from more than 10% of voters to force a ballot.

"I think that over the past 20 years Russian residents of Latvia have been humiliated by authorities, by endless attempts either to assimilate or make them second-class citizens," Vladimir Linderman, co-chairman of Mother Tongue, told AP. "So this is our answer."

The referendum has been described as "absurd" by Latvian President Andris Berzins, who said most people were more concerned with the country's recovery from a severe recession.

He pointed out that the government funds own-language schools for minority groups such as Russians.

"There's no need for a second language. Whoever wants, can use their language at home or in school," he said.