Divergence Profiles of Communication Processes between Latvia and Russia

Abstract

The article, based on scientific literature and a large number of sources: sociological studies, various statistical and analytical materials, regulations, materials from mass media and social networks, provides an analysis of the deepening split in historically similar (according to G.Hofstede’s criteria) neighboring societies of Latvia and Russia. 12 groups of communications are considered that determine the content of the information space of Latvia in relation to Russia: foreign policy, economics, attitude towards Russia and Russians, education, science, culture, media, non-profit organizations, youth, religious and interreligious, freedom of movement, interregional communications. The results of the study show that Latvians and Russians are divided not so much by ethnic characteristics or the specifics of culture and traditions, but by their attitude to political history. At the same time, the negativization of the Russian state and Russians is undertaken mainly not by the population, but by the ruling political elite of Latvia, whose behavior is entirely determined by the interests of the countries of the Anglo-Saxon world. At the same time, the currently obvious divergence (divergence) in the development paths of historically similar societies that have been in the same civilizational space for centuries has led to differentiation in the manifestations of communication. Signs of an accelerating divergence in communication processes between Latvia and Russia are manifested in foreign policy communications, attitudes towards Russia and Russians, in culture, in the media and some other areas. Profiles of containing the divergence of communication processes – in religious and interreligious communications, youth, scientific communications, freedom of movement, etc. The results obtained allow us to hope with cautious optimism for the restoration of good-neighborly communication relations between Latvia and Russia in the foreseeable future.