Baltic States – CIS, Latvia, Legislation, USA

''Such issues are completely dependent on the Latvian people. These decision will be made by the Latvian people, according to the country's legislation and procedures. It would not be right of me to comment on this issue,'' the U.S. ambassador told LETA.

At the same time, he points out that the United States supports dialogue, understanding and discussion, which would lead to an acceptable solution for all sides. ''We support the continuation of discussion, but we will not interfere in domestic political affairs.''

As reported, the organizers of the "non-citizen referendum" handed in a total of 12,779 signatures to the Central Election Commission earlier this month, which call for a referendum on automatic citizenship to all non-citizens of Latvia.

The signature drive was organized by the movement "For Equal Rights", an associate of For Human Rights In A United Latvia.

If the Central Election Commission decides that at least 10,000 valid signatures have been collected during the signature drive, then a second round of the collection of signatures will be organized to gather 10 percent of voters' signatures. If the second round is also successful, Saeima will vote on the proposed amendment, and if the parliament turns it down, a referendum will be held.

Political experts believe that the initiative greatly depends on Harmony Center and its leader Nils Usakovs' position on the matter. If Usakovs expresses support for the initiative, it may have better chances.

Usakovs, however, said that he would not support the signature drive, nor the referendum.