DISINFO: Russian speakers are barred from running in Estonian elections
SUMMARY
In Estonia, most of Russian-speaking inhabitants may vote according to the laws, however they cannot run in the elections and occupy state-positions.
The Baltic politicians insist that everything that is Russian is a threat. And every time when the Russian-speakers in the Baltic States try to defend their rights, the authorities respond in spirit "your rights are not breached, because you don't have any".
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about alleged Russophobia in the Baltic States.
According to Estonian Riigikogu Election Act, article 4:
(4) Estonian citizens who have attained 21 years of age by the last day for the registration of candidates have the right to stand as candidates.
(5) A person who has been divested of his or her active legal capacity with regard to the right to vote does not have the right to stand as a candidate.
(6) A person in active service in the Defence Forces or a person who has been convicted of a criminal offence by a court and is serving a prison sentence shall not stand as a candidate for election to the Riigikogu.
As for the rights of minorities, Estonia is considered a consolidated democracy by Freedom House and a Flawed Democracy by the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index.
In Latvia, the Constitutional Court of Latvia stated that Amendments to the Education Law that stipulate transition to Latvian as the sole instruction language in schools are in line with the Constitution. In its decision, the Constitutional Court indicated that the convention on the protection of national minorities said that any person has the right to learn in their native language. But the convention allows countries themselves to decide the extent to which this is carried out, which was done in Latvia. Separately, the court decision notes that the right to learn the native language should not interfere with the development of the state language, and it is Latvian in Latvia. Read more here.
Additionally, Latvia offers educational programmes in eight minority languages, which besides Russian include Polish, Hebrew, Ukrainian, Estonian, Lithuanian, Belarusian and Roma languages. In primary schools, which are implementing the minority language programmes, lessons are taught in both minority language and Latvian, while in high-schools - 60% in Latvian, 40% in minority language. However, the passing of a Latvian language state exam is required to successfully finish and acquire a high-school diploma.
See related examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation claims, alleging that Russian-speakers are still openly discriminated against, especially in the Baltic states; Russian media and language under pressure in the Baltics; the rights of non-citizens are limited in Latvia.