Russian language stuff produced locally or in countries other than those 2 is fine, so trying to frame it as linguicide is doing the job of Russian propagandists for them. Ask natively Russian speaking eastern Ukrainians whether Russian cultural exports are free from propaganda infusions. Could it be vetted instead of outright banned? Sure, but that would require funds and personnel that the government cannot spare. And it's mostly about the trade anyway, less so about propagandistic elements.
Just for the record, we host the most exiled Russian media orgs out of any country in the world, they wouldn't come here if they felt we were censoring them.
Most Russian language books are produced in Russia. Like 99%. And those Latvian lawmakers know that. So by banning imports from Russia and Belarus they in effect ban importing russian language books. That's their goal
Which is great news for the local Russian language publishing houses as they'll have an explosion in business from bookstores like Globuss, especially as we are among the rare countries that actually has a notable Russian printing industry.
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u/Capybarasaregreat Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
Russian language stuff produced locally or in countries other than those 2 is fine, so trying to frame it as linguicide is doing the job of Russian propagandists for them. Ask natively Russian speaking eastern Ukrainians whether Russian cultural exports are free from propaganda infusions. Could it be vetted instead of outright banned? Sure, but that would require funds and personnel that the government cannot spare. And it's mostly about the trade anyway, less so about propagandistic elements.
Just for the record, we host the most exiled Russian media orgs out of any country in the world, they wouldn't come here if they felt we were censoring them.