A referendum in Latvia has opened on whether Russian should be made the official second national language in the country.

Many people have anticipated that the motion will fail and cause a bigger gap between the segmented communities. Currently, a third of the 2.1 million people in Latvia claim Russian as their first language.

However, the native Latvians associate Russian with the language of the Soviet Union, and feel the liberation and independence they gained 20 years ago will be infringed upon by making the language official.

But the Russian-speaking minority consider it as a remedy for what they believe to be two decades of unfairness against them.

Aleksejs Yevdokimovs, 36, said: “For me and many Russians in Latvia, this is a kind of gesture to show our dissatisfaction with the political system here, with how society is divided into two classes – one half has full rights, and the other half’s rights are violated.”

He added: “The Latvian half always employs a presumption of guilt toward the Russian half, so that we have to prove things that shouldn’t need to be proven.”