Prime minister says Vilnius Russian language policy is too early to assess

Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius said it was too early to assess Vilnius city municipality’s decision to reduce the use of Russian in education and public services, LRT reported. He said it remained unclear whether the move represented a principled position or a communications initiative.

“It is difficult to assess. I saw several comments suggesting that Russian is being abandoned, but if employees who speak and understand Russian are available, people will still be able to receive consultations in that language,” Sinkevičius told reporters on Wednesday.

He said the situation of foreigners living in Lithuania should be considered when evaluating such decisions. According to the prime minister, some Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians living in Lithuania speak neither Lithuanian nor English.

“If it concerned Russian citizens, the answer would probably be different. But if it concerned freedom fighters who left the Belarusian regime and do not speak another language, or Ukrainians, the perspective changes somewhat,” Sinkevičius said.

On Tuesday, Vilnius municipality said it was expanding opportunities to learn Lithuanian while reducing the use of Russian in education and public services as part of its integration plan for residents of foreign origin.

The municipality said that, from this year, primary education for children of non-European Union citizens would be organised only in Lithuanian. It also said the number of Lithuanian-language lessons had been increased in national minority schools, while the number of preschool groups operating in Russian had fallen from 181 to 112 over the past three years.

Vilnius has also removed the Russian-language version of its website, discontinued Russian in its customer queue management system and decided to stop accepting applications and complaints in Russian. Residents may still receive verbal information in Russian or other non-EU languages when necessary, depending on employees’ language skills.

Virginijus Sinkevičius, leader of the Democratic Union For Lithuania, called the initiative commendable but said Mayor Valdas Benkunskas was using it to divert attention from the continuing waste management situation in the Vilnius region.