Integration has become the central issue in the ethnopolitics of Latvia where the large Russian minority has been denied automatic citizenship. Despite the double standard imposed by the government, most of Latvia’s ethnic Russians are expected to apply for Latvian citizenship, having partly complied with the government’s stringent policies on language mastery. As a result of the pragmatism shown by ethnic Russians, Latvia may eventually achieve integration within a generation, as the Russian minority complete their gradual and peaceful assimilation into the majority culture.
