A Minister in Riga was outraged by a driver speaking to her in Russian – the taxi driver turned out to be Ukrainian

Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže expressed outrage after encountering a taxi driver in the capital of her country who spoke Russian. The driver turned out to be a refugee from Ukraine.

The diplomat reported the incident on her social media page.

According to Braže’s account, the driver she used could only communicate with her in Russian. The minister demanded an explanation from the ride-hailing company Bolt, where the man is employed.

Eventually, the minister received an apology—the company informed her that the driver had arrived from Ukraine and did not know Latvian.

Nevertheless, the minister stated that “Russian should not be the only language of communication.”

Earlier, in Germany, a Ukrainian teacher complained about a student and her mother for speaking Russian.

The class teacher suggested filing a complaint, as German laws prohibit discrimination based on language.