One of America’s leading newspapers, The New York Times, is paying attention to the growing concerns a resurgent Russia poses to some observers in the Baltic countries. In a two-part video report, journalist Adam B. Ellick covers the influence Russia under Vladimir Putin has in the Baltics, and then looks at the “StalinWorld” statue park in Lithuania.

The videos are available in part 1 and part 2.

Ellick also has a text version of the story.

Thanks to Andris Grunde for alerting us to the coverage.

Here’s a new angle on the story about challenges faced by Western-born Latvians returning to their ancestral homeland: the locals don’t think much of the new immigrants’ child-rearing practices.

Writing in the Oct. 31 edition of Toronto’s Globe and Mail, journalist Jane Armstrong describes some of the run-ins three women from the West have faced since moving to Latvia.

The article features Dace Runģis and Laima Dimiševskis, both originally from Canada, and Marianna Auliciema, who hails from Australia but was born in Canada. (Among her activities, Auliciema heads up the excellent DP albums online documentary project.)

“They’re part of a wave of young people, more than 5,000 since 1995, who are returning to Latvia to put down permanent roots, a migration being supported by the government to counter a troubling outflow of Latvians who have fled for brighter futures elsewhere,” Armstrong writes.