Quote Originally Posted by Marcus View Post
Russian is spoken by a large part of the population. It is very unfair that it's not an official language.
This opinion I agree with. I think the Russian speakers have a responsibility to make an effort at being good Latvian citizens, including with the language etc. But I think it would be more fair if Russian was acknowledged as an official language or a minority language in the country in recognition of the actual situation in the country. As it is, old people could buy medicine that they can't understand the instructions for, or people might be in danger because they can't understand warning signs. Plus it is a courtesy! Finland is a good example. Sweden "occupied" Finland for a few hundred years and for that reason there have always been native Swedish speakers there. It's only about 15% of the population, but they can get everything they need in Swedish, and when I go there, I can always feel comfortable about reading signs and important information. Anyway, it's cool to be a bilingual country! It enriches the country a lot.

About the Georgia invasion:
There is definitely another side to that story. I think the reporting in European media was relatively one sided. A few months afterwards, even British media realised this and ran some "other side of the story" articles. Russia wouldn't just invade the Baltics for no reason, Nato or not They were there during WW2 to fight the Nazis and then I suppose just took advantage of the situation.