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| | East European Constitutional Review |
 | | Several international organizations had strongly urged Latvia to change the laws; however, the main demand came from NATO, in February, when Secretary-General George Robertson warned parliamentarians about the risk of not being invited to join the alliance this fall if the requirement, which does not conform with NATO's political standards, was not abolished. |
 | | On March 20, during a conference devoted to cooperation between Latvia and the OSCE, Gerard Stoudmann, director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, stated that it would be logical to make Russian an official language in Latvia, adding that the de facto situation should be codified into law. |
 | | After the auction, Ainars Slesers, former minister of economy and an MP from Latvia's First Party, questioned how authentic the privatization actually was, given that the state still holds a 43.62 percent stake in Ventspils Nafta, and he asked the prime minister to dismiss Minister of Economy Aigars Kalvitis. |
| www.law.nyu.edu /eecr/vol11num3/constitutionwatch/latvia.html (2021 words) |
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