Lithuania has ratified the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and other international instruments that are designed to prevent the introduction of legislation restricting the rights of national minorities. However, the actions of Lithuanian authorities are aimed at restricting the rights of the non-Lithuanian population and its forced assimilation. This has a significant impact on reducing the number of not only Russian and Polish, but also Ukrainian, Belorussian, Jewish and other nationalities. Lithuania, despite its membership in the EU has not ratified the "European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages." However, it should be noted that Article 11 of the Framework Convention provides an opportunity in areas traditionally inhabited by substantial numbers of persons belonging to a national minority, to write the names of the streets in the language of the national minority as well. At the same time Article 17 of the Law on the State Language states that all public inscriptions in Lithuanian Republic should be carried out in the state language. Contrary to Article 11 of the Law on International Treaties, which states that if a ratified international treaty of the Republic of Lithuania establishes other rules than those set by the laws of Lithuania, the provisions of the international treaty of the Republic of Lithuania overrule other legal acts which should be ignored. Grossly ignored are the requirements of national minorities to write their names in the official documents in accordance with the rules of the native language. Despite the European legislation in Lithuania it is prohibited to use minority languages (along with the state language) in the writing of geographical names, even in localities where the minority representatives make up more than 80% of the population. For example in 2008 the Administrative Court banned the inscriptions in Russian and Polish, established in the areas of compact settlement of ethnic minorities (Vilnius and Šalčininkai regions), which also contradicts the Article 11.3 of the Framework Convention. In 2010, there were several cases of administrative punishment in the form of fines for the public use of the Polish language, along with the state, by local