Vejonis: Russia's "soft power" attempts don't work too well in Latvia

  • 2017-01-11
  • BNS/TBT Staff

RIGA - Russia's attempts to use "soft power" to influence Latvia's population had not really been successful, Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis said on the morning news program of the public Latvian Television on Wednesday.

He said that those attempts had failed to create the desired effect.

Answering a question about whether Latvia needed any Russian-language media at all, Vejonis said they were needed because part of the population were Russian-speakers therefore both the public broadcasters and, as far as practicable, the private broadcasters should continue broadcasting Russian-language programs. "Of course, there is the question about the content," he added.

The Latvian president said that in principle he agreed that it was necessary to strengthen the Russian-language content in the public mass media. "However, basically everyone should learn the Latvian language and watch the Latvian-language TV channels," he said.