Marija Andrejeva is a journalist covering the Baltics for Current Time.
After blocking nine Russian TV channels last November, Latvia is now considering further steps to push back against suspected propaganda from Russian broadcast outlets. In mid-February, Latvian President Egils Levits proposed media-law amendments that would require all TV providers restrict programming in non-European Union languages to 20 percent of their total broadcasts. But one Russia-friendly local TV station is fighting back.
Latvia attracts the most Chinese investment of any Baltic member of the European Union, but that does not always mean that Chinese migrants find it easy to settle here. Following a 2014 clampdown on visas, many have left. Chinese restaurateur and hotel owner Tao Ma, who came to Latvia more than 20 years ago, has integrated into Latvian society, but says that doing business is still a challenge.
Thirty years ago, on August 23, 1989, approximately 2 million people in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania joined hands to form a human chain more than 600 kilometers long to show their desire for independence from the Soviet Union. Current Time spoke with organizers and participants of the Baltic Way to find out how they remember this event today.
Euroskepticism doesn't get far with 81-year-old former Latvian President Vike-Freiberga. As head of state, she sidestepped tensions with Russia and successfully advocated for Latvia's 2004 entrance into the European Union. "We simply clenched our teeth and rowed forward," she told Current Time.
For many Latvians, joining the European Union on May 1, 2004 was all about reaffirming their European identity and leaving the Soviet past behind. Latvia’s population, however, has shrunk by some 365,000 people over the past 15 years. That trend, though, appears to be changing, as migrants start to return.
