Prime minister questions Vilnius plan to reduce Russian language use

Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius said it was too early to assess Vilnius city municipality’s decision to reduce the use of Russian in public services, LRT reported.

He said it was not yet clear whether the move represented a principled position or a political and communication initiative.

“I saw the Vilnius city municipality’s initiative, and it is difficult to assess. I saw several comments suggesting that Russian is being abandoned, but if there are employees who speak and understand Russian, people will still be able to receive consultations in that language,” Sinkevičius told reporters on Wednesday.

The prime minister said the situation of foreigners living in Lithuania should also be taken into account when assessing such decisions.

“There are Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians living in Lithuania, and we probably have to recognise that some of them speak neither Lithuanian nor English,” he said. Sinkevičius added that his position could differ depending on whether the measures affected Russian citizens, Belarusian opposition activists who had left the country’s regime, or Ukrainians.

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

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

In addition, the municipality has removed the Russian-language version of its website, eliminated Russian from its customer queue-management system and decided no longer to accept applications and complaints in Russian.

According to the municipality, residents may be informed orally in Russian or other non-EU languages when necessary, depending on employees’ language skills.

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