RIGA - A Sept. 12 meeting, called to unite the disparate wings of the ethnic Russian community at a time of general discontent, nearly collapsed when members of one political party were accused of trying to monopolize power.
The new organization Russian Community in Latvia was created as an advocacy for long-standing minority demands such as citizenship for noncitizens and the abrogation of the school reform, as well as establishing Russian as the country's second official language.
Many new faces appeared at the Moscow Business and Culture Center gathering, which ended with the more entrenched politicians failing to gain a seat on the organization's 17-member board. As a result, the inaugural congress dissolved into acrimony.
Shtab (Headquarters for the Defense of Russian Schools) leaders Jurij Petropavlovky and Gennady Kotov were both barred from a place on the board, as was the ubiquitous Tatyana Zdanoka, MEP and leader of the left-wing bloc For Human Rights in a United Latvia.
In fact no politicians were given a seat on the board.
Speaking from the podium, Kotov expressed dismay that not a single person from For Human Rights was nominated to the board, especially considering the party's popular support and how much it allegedly accomplished for Latvia's minorities.
The next speaker, however, reportedly defended the decision to bar For Human Rights from the organization's board, claiming that the new body wouldn't survive being associated with just one political movement, particularly one that had become increasingly marginalized.
This statement only enraged the party's faithful, and the congress quickly descended into a free-for-all of insults and simultaneous discussions. For Human Rights officials nearly left the building before eventually being coaxed into staying.
Finally, after the emotional outburst subsided, hunger strike participant Mikhail Tyasin managed to contact the deported Alexander Kazakov in Moscow, who spoke to the congress via cell phone.
Kazakov, who was deported on Sept. 3 by order of the Interior Ministry for inciting "ethnic hatred," pleaded for congress participants not to allow a schism in the gathering. He even asked For Human Rights members to understand that their presence on the board would weaken the new organization's standing in the eyes of Latvians, and that if anything, the Russian community in Latvia needed credibility with the powers-that-be first.
Congress participants heeded Kazakov's appeal.
"Within the organization you have none of the members of political parties," Special Task Minister For Integration Nils Muiznieks said, adding that the new faces may make it easier for dialogue.
Still, he said, their demands were unlikely to be met by the Latvian government.
Other observers remarked that an organization like this could easily crumble given the distinct groups participating within it, as each struggles for control.
Fourteen organizations were present at the congress - about one third of the total number of minority NGOs in Latvia. Organizers claimed to have a combined membership of 50,000 people and hope to expand that number to 250,000 by their next meeting in March 2005.
Many congress participants were unambiguously dissatisfied with the outcome. Shtab's Petropavlovsky, in particular, said he wasn't pleased with some of the board's members.
"We did everything and helped anyway we could. Now it's all up to them. But, unfortunately, some of them don't even know what they are doing in politics," Petropavlovsky said. "Some, like Ivan Klementjev, didn't do anything for Russian schools."
Another issue settled at the congress was the cessation of the hunger strike, which had begun Aug. 23. Strikers cited a lack of consensus among the minority community as the main reasons for giving up their protest.
Muiznieks visited the group in an attempt to persuade them to drop the protest, but the meeting resulted in angry recriminations. Some of the strikers referred to the minister as a "fascist from Canada" (he is actually from California) and Muiznieks' assistant Alexander Brandav as an assimilated Russian.
Muiznieks concluded that a dialogue with the hunger strikers was "impossible."
To be sure, the hunger strike failed to create much public interest despite the sort of reality show available on Shtab's Web site. The Russian Foreign Ministry also released a statement asking international organizations such as the OSCE and the Council of Europe to intervene and monitor the situation in Latvia.
