Lithuania’s Social Security and Labour Minister Inga Ruginienė has criticised a decision by the Vilnius city government to stop accepting written requests and complaints in Russian, saying the policy risks promoting social exclusion.
“The discussion about Russian-language proficiency is very strange,” Ruginienė told the radio Žinių Radijas on Tuesday.
Ruginienė said she supports the use of Lithuanian as the country’s official language but noted that some residents, particularly older people, still communicate primarily in Russian.
“To me, this is also a matter of respect,” she said. “Are we fostering exclusion and sorting people into good or bad, those with us or those against us? I do not particularly like this approach.”
The Vilnius municipality announced last week that it would no longer accept written applications and complaints from residents in Russian. Information in Russian and other non-European Union languages will only be provided orally only when a municipal employee is able to communicate in the requested language.
