City Duma Latvian Daugavpils refused to reward 11 schoolchildren who in 2020 became prize-winners of the Russian language Olympics organized by the St. Petersburg State University. It is reported by the portal Gorod.lv.
According to local law, the authorities of the city are obliged to encourage schoolchildren and students who distinguished themselves on training competitions. The winners had to receive a cash remuneration in the amount of 55 to 80 euros depending on the place. At the last meeting, the deputies decided that this practice applies only to events organized in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of Latvia.
As the edition notes, after debates in the Duma, the legal department recommended awarding schoolchildren, and education management is to refuse to pay. “Motivation of education management was as follows: This competition does not correspond to the level of the International Olympiad, since any participant could declare, without passing preliminary selection in the city, regional and state level,” the portal says.
After publicity, the party “Russian Union of Latvia” also paid attention. She promised to award winners from their own funds and stressed that the authorities of the country for 10 years have never declared teams to participate in the Russian language competitions. “We are convinced that children should not suffer from the insolvency of the bureaucratic apparatus and political games!” – Reported on the Party page in Facebook .
Earlier, the Latvian Ambassador to Russia Maris Riekstins said that relations between Moscow and Riga are in the worst condition since the end of the Cold War. The diplomat stressed that Riga has the right to speak of this, as it consists in the European Union and NATO, is part of the Western world.