I think that the Latvians negative stance against Russia is probably costing them a lot of money.
Do you think that we should be prostituting ourselves to Russia?
Lukashenko already tried that - and see where that got him.
He has two options now.
1. Resign and start a democracy in Belarus. That way Belarus can get help from the EU.
Of course situation will be hard - like 90s in the Baltics, but after that - situation will stabilize and maybe someday Belarus will become a normal European country.

2. Sell Belarus to Russia. And lose all economic power. And probably get ousted by Russia anyway after some time and replaced by more loyal Kremlin's puppet.
Then Belarus will become de-facto autonomous oblast of Russia.
Too bad that both of those options are bad for Lukashenko , and only first is good for Belarus in long term.
People have a hard time finding a job.
Yes, outside of Rīga region it can be hard unfortunately - Latvia has become too centralized, but in Rīga - if you are able to do something useful and are not "boozing around" - you will not be unemployed for long.

Practically everyone has a relative or a friend that is working abroad. (some of my relatives have emigrated to Ireland, but they are mostly doing shitty jobs - I actually know no one that has a good job there).
Construction workers buying BMWs... hm...
It was a real madness.
During "fat years" there were sooo many new and expensive cars on roads. Traffic in Rīga was a complete nightmare, because most of city's infrastructure was built during Soviet years and was not suited for such a high congestion.
And when "crisis" started - most of them disappeared practically overnight (I'm exaggerating ) and traffic problems were gone.