Latviaʹs Russian minority: balancing the imperatives of regional development and environmental justice

This article examines the political, economic and social marginalization of Latviaʹs ethnic Russian minority in the post-Soviet era, and considers the impact of marginalization on both regional development and issues of environmental justice. I argue that demographic concentration of Russians in the region known as Latgale in southeast Latvia as well as the severe marginalization of this population has led to growing economic disparities in regional development since 1991. Contrary to expectations, however, the marginalization of ethnic Russians in Latvia does not appear to have led to increased environmental injustices relative to this group; based on an examination of siting decisions of new hazardous waste facilities in post-Soviet Latvia, I argue that industrial facilities commonly viewed as environmentally hazardous in advanced capitalist democracies hold quite different connotations in struggling transitional societies. Rather than the tendencies of growing regional underdevelopment and increased environmental discrimination reinforcing each other (as is commonly observed in developed capitalist societies), in these transitional societies the two tendencies appear to work in opposition to each other. In this article, I will investigate this unexpected relationship and highlight unique aspects of post-communist transitions that provide an explanation for this outcome.