Russian-speaking Latvians who back Ukraine and value their language are heading into an election without an obvious political home

Latvia votes for its 15th parliament on Oct. 3, with polls showing seven groups in contention and the traditional 'Russian' parties, especially Harmony Center, polling below the 5% threshold needed for seats. Two newer groups, the Sovereign Power/Young Latvians alliance and Latvia First, are competing to pick up voters who once backed those parties, a notable shift given that about 35% of Latvian citizens speak Russian at home.

The piece traces this back to Harmony's 2018 peak, when it won 19.8% of the vote and 23 seats, followed by its 2022 collapse below the threshold and the subsequent breakup of its successor party's faction by early 2026. That history runs through decades of splits between Russian-speaking politicians who sought to work within the restored Latvian state and those who grew out of resistance to its restoration, alliances that repeatedly fused and fractured from the 1990s onward.

Notably, the United Arab List-style tactic of broadening appeal appears here too: one of Latvia's Russian-speaking-aligned parties is running a Jewish Zionist-style crossover candidate's analogue in local terms — in this case, a popular former police officer — though the piece does not suggest any single successor has matched Harmony's old reach.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.