VILNIUS, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Lithuania's Department of National Minorities has called for a balanced approach to the growing public debate over Russian language use, urging respect for ethnic minorities while promoting Lithuanian learning.
According to the Baltic News Service (BNS), Dainius Babilas, the department's director, emphasized that Russian is spoken by both recent arrivals and long-standing Russian minorities, including Old Believers. He warned against letting efforts to promote the national language fuel division or hatred.
