Latvian region has distinct identity and allure for Russia
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/21/world/europe/latvian-region-has-distinct-identity-and-allure-for-russia.html?_r=0Interesting article (this is the kind of in-depth, beyond-the-headlines article where the NYT earns its creds, and my continuing subscription).
But. . uh-oh Don't try it, Putie.
For background, "Latgalian" is seen as a dialect of Latvian. While Russians live in the area, the "Latgalians" themselves are not Russian.
But complaints that the regions culture, heavily influenced by Russia, is under threat have been taken up with gusto by pro-Russian groups, fueling suspicion that they work as a front for Moscow.
In a recent article urging Russia to undertake a preventive occupation of this and two other Baltic nations, all of them NATO members, Rostislav Ishchenko, a political analyst close to influential nationalist figures in Moscow, asserted that Latgales separate identity could help open the way for a revision of Baltic borders. A map accompanying the article showed Latgale as a separate entity taking up the entire length of what is now Latvias border with Russia.
Such a scenario would mean a Baltic replay of events last year in Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists and so-called green men Russian soldiers in uniforms stripped of insignia seized Crimea and then territory along Ukraines border with Russia. Much the same strategy has been promoted in a recent series of mysterious online appeals calling for the establishment of a Latgalian Peoples Republic, a Latvian version of the Donetsk Peoples Republic supported by Russia in Ukraine.Latvias Security Police, the domestic intelligence agency, have struggled to trace the source of the appeals but believe they originated in Russia.
They seem to be some kind of provocation to test how we would react, said a security agency official, who asked not to be identified because of the delicacy of the issue. He said there were no signs of separatist fervor in Latgale itself and described the Latgalian Peoples Republic as an artificial creation by outsiders. Eastern Ukraine also displayed no separatist fervor until Russian-backed gunmen in March 2014 seized government buildings in Donetsk, silenced local supporters of Ukraines central government and, aided by Russian state television, mobilized a previously passive population to the separatist cause.
swilton
(5,069 posts)Russia and Latvia have recognized each other since 1991.
Based upon the criteria typically used to characterize national identity (religion, ethnicity, language, cultural heritage) Latvia and Ukraine are mutually exclusive cases compared to Russia.
Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, claim Kiev as their ancestral identity. Latvia was only historically part of the Soviet Union from 1939-90 (+/-).
Those in Latvia who claim religion (20%) are Lutheran - Russia and Ukraine are both Eastern Orthodox.
Linguistically, Ukraine and Russia are Eastern Slavic speakers - as is Belarus - where as the Latvian language is a much younger language and is Indo European and utilizes the Latin alphabet.
I think the purpose of this article is to embrace the ongoing saber rattling in the Baltic States.