Abstract

Russia Confronts Its `Near Abroad.'

This article presents prognosis for the next phase in the history of the former Soviet republic by a Latvian nationalist Alexanders Kirsteins. After gaining independence, Latvia disfranchised roughly half its Russian-speaking population by offering the right to vote primarily to citizens of pre-1940 Latvia and their descendants. That move, predictably, led to this past summer's election results, in which Latvia's ethnic minorities, principally Russians, Ukrainians and Jews, won only a handful of seats in the new Parliament, even though they make up 48 percent of the population. The next step advocated by Kirsteins's party, which finished second in the balloting behind a party called Latvian Way, would be legislation denying unemployment benefits to noncitizens.