Security Concerns of Residents in Latvia after the Ukraine Conflict : Insights from 2014 Survey Research

The aim of this research is to investigate the factors that define Latvia inhabitants' attitude toward their eastern neighbor, the Russian Federation, in the context of the aftermath of the Ukraine conflict. It is easy to assume that the conflict frightened Latvian society, but it is still unclear who fears and hates the Russian Federation and who does not. An analysis based on survey research, which the author of this paper originally conducted in Latvia in autumn of 2014, shows the following findings. 1) Having an ethnic/language background is one clear predictor of respondents' attitude toward the Russian Federation, even after controlling the effects of their economic status, social status, and political and media preferences. 2) It seems that highly educated people tend to polarize their attitude toward Russia, but this happens because their political partisanships and media usage (assumed to be associated with their education level) have important impacts on the formation of their attitude toward Russia