Latvia established itself as a republic in 1918 and secured its sovereignty through a war of independence. A peace treaty with Soviet Russia was signed in 1920. That early unity later splintered under economic upheaval, transatlantic disengagement and the failure of the League of Nations, and Latvia fell victim to Hitler's and Stalin's aggression. After half a century of Soviet occupation, the country regained its independence; securing the withdrawal of Russian troops was made possible by Western pressure and negotiations from a position of strength. Latvia was part of a Russian empire from 1710 until 1990, apart from 21 years of independence between 1918 and 1939.
Latvia and the other Baltic states, together with Poland, plan to spend 5% of GDP on defence by 2026, well above NATO's new spending targets.
Latvia has a population of under 2m. A third speak Russian as their first language—the biggest ethnic-Russian minority as a share of the population of any country in the European Union. Between 1945 and 1989 the share of ethnic Latvians in the population dropped from 80% to just 52%, after the Soviets used Latvia as their military and industrial stronghold in the Baltic region. Stalin deported some 60,000 Latvians to Siberia. Unlike Estonia, which has linguistic and cultural ties to Finland, and Lithuania, which was part of a commonwealth with Poland, Latvia lacked a comparable political anchor and was more Russianised and then Sovietised than the other Baltic states.
After independence, Russians who had settled during the Soviet occupation were officially designated "non-citizens"—they received full social benefits but had restricted voting rights and were barred from public office. Segregation was reinforced by separate Russian- and Latvian-speaking schools inherited from the Soviet era. All schooling is now in Latvian. Latvia's own State Audit Office has admitted that integration of Russian speakers has been ineffective and unco-ordinated.
In 2023 Latvia passed its National Security Concept, which from January 1st 2026 requires all public media content to be in Latvian or "languages belonging to the European cultural space"; Russian does not qualify. Russian-language media may only be funded privately. Latvian Radio 4, one of the country's main public Russian-language radio channels, was shut down at the end of 2025 despite having a stable, staunchly anti-Kremlin audience—a quarter of its listeners were native Latvian speakers.
After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Latvia initially welcomed fleeing Russian journalists but later expelled independent Russian-language broadcasters; Estonia, by contrast, increased public spending on Russian-language media. Meduza, a major independent Russian online news provider, still operates from Latvia.
Since 2010 Latvia had attracted investment by granting residency permits to property-buying foreigners. Russians who took that deal are now barred from renewing their permits. Russian nationals have been banned from jobs in critical infrastructure. Russian has been removed from ATM machines. VAT on Russian-language books and newspapers is set at 21%, instead of the 5% for other European languages.
A study by Latvian and European think-tanks found that 60% of Russian speakers are scared to express their opinions publicly. Baiba Braze, Latvia's foreign minister, objects to the phrase "Russian-speakers in Latvia," calling it "a political term coined by some people close to the Kremlin to try to impose a Russian worldview."
Latvia's economy had served as a bridge between Russia and the EU; Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 dealt it a severe blow. Daugavpils, the country's mainly Russian-speaking second city, reflects the difficulties of integration.
By 2025 Latvia and the other Baltic states had achieved total energy independence from Russia, having previously relied on it for most of their natural gas.
This is clearly another case of too many mad scientists, and not enough hunchbacks.