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Speaking Russian in Latvia

In the EU bordering Russia, what is the economic future of eastern Latvia?

Marie Keyworth visits Rezekne, a city in Latvia just 60km from the Russian border, where half the residents speak Latvian as their first language, and half prefer Russian. In one of the the poorest regions of the European Union and with the economy still struggling to recover from the fall of the Soviet Union, do Rezekne residents see future economic prosperity coming from Russia or the EU? We find out why a quarter of the population have left this border region in the last decade, and what the local government is trying to do about it. And Russian speakers explain why they want to see Russian accepted as an official language of Latvia.

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18 minutes

Last on

Wed 24 May 2017 07:32GMT

Broadcast

  • Wed 24 May 2017 07:32GMT

Podcast