Ukraine and Latvia: Welcome to "The Clash of Civilizations"
"Like Ukraine, Latvia is a cleft country, with ethnic Russians making up nearly 30 percent of the population and the Russian language being the native tongue for nearly 40 percent."
It may be too late now, not only to rescue Ukraine from what appears to be a looming civil war, but also to save Latvia from similar cultural tensions. This is a Western mess, and it may require a great deal of time, effort and exertion for the West to clean it up.
Robert W. Merry is political editor of The National Interest and the author of books on American history and foreign policy. His most recent book is Where They Stand: The American Presidents in the Eyes of Voters and Historians.