Russia will withdraw its last troops from Latvia by Aug. 31 despite an angry protest by President Boris Yeltsin over the Baltic state's new citizenship law, a presidential spokesman said Friday.


The spokesman, Anatoly Krasikov, said by telephone that the last few thousand Russian troops stationed in Latvia would be withdrawn as planned under an April agreement.


In a harshly worded statement Thursday, Yeltsin said "positive achievements in regulating all aspects of the withdrawal of Russian troops" would be negated by the new Latvian citizenship law, which denies citizenship to Russian residents not born in Latvia until the year 2000.


But Krasikov said Yeltsin had not meant that the withdrawal of remaining Russian troops stationed in Latvia would be halted. Instead, Krasikov said, Russia could impose trade sanctions if Latvia did not modify its citizenship law.


Yeltsin accused the Latvian parliament of discriminating against its Russian residents by adopting a law that grants citizenship over the next six years only to Russians born in Latvia. Russians who immigrated after World War II -- 80 percent of Latvia's 500,000 Russian-speaking residents -- will be eligible for citizenship only after the year 2000.


Latvia's Foreign Ministry said is was "baffled" by Yeltsin's remarks and insisted that the new law met international standards.


When Latvia's parliament passed the law last month, it dropped an earlier restriction on the number of Russian residents who could receive citizenship.