Riga's Vice Mayor Edvards Ratnieks sent a letter to the Minister of Culture Nauris Puntulis urging him to instruct the Mikhail Chekhov Riga Russian Theatre to replace the existing facade poster in Russian in accordance with the State Language Law.
"The war has been going on for almost five years. However, in the urban environment of Riga, a large sign in Russian still proudly hangs on the facade of the state-owned Mikhail Chekhov Riga Russian Theatre, which, in our opinion, contradicts the State Language Law. Essentially, in our view, the theatre is acting unlawfully, and the Ministry of Culture has allowed this all along and ignored the city's call to cease the use of the Russian language in the urban environment. I hope that with the change of minister, this issue will be resolved and will not send incorrect signals to the residents of Riga," said Riga's Vice Mayor Edvards Ratnieks.
Article 21 of the State Language Law states that information intended to inform the public by state and municipal institutions, courts and judicial institutions, state and municipal enterprises, as well as capital companies in which the majority of shares are owned by the state or municipality, must be provided only in the state language. Information contained in inscriptions, signs, posters, announcements, and other messages placed in publicly accessible places, if it concerns legitimate public interests and is intended to inform the public, must be provided in the state language, the vice mayor's statement said.
Currently, the Riga City Council's Department of Urban Development does not approve new design sketches submitted by the theatre if they contain text in Russian.
