[sam_lowry_]

Language is not that much of a problem.

They all speak Russian. Lithuania has a sizable minority of Russian speakers, and has historical ties to Belarus. Latvia is predominantly Russian-speaking. Ukraine as well.

Knowing Belarusian, they can pick up Polish rather quickly.

As a last resort, Russia is still freer than Belarus politically and better off economically. Smolensk is half an hour drive from the Belarusian border.

[markvdb]

> Latvia is predominantly Russian-speaking.

This seems to imply the majority of residents of Latvia speak Russian natively. That might have been correct had the USSR existed a bit longer, but history took a different turn.

"Most Latvian businesses, especially in the Riga area, will happily serve you in Russian." That would be a more neutral and correct statement appropriate for this context.

Also relevant would be how Latvian government is publicly angling for Belarussian businesses willing to relocate to Latvia [1].

Regarding native tongues in Latvia... Currently, over 30% of Latvian residents speak Russian, Belarussian or Ukrainian natively, versus 62.3% Latvian. In Riga, the number of Russian, Belorussian or Ukrainian native speakers rises to over 43% [0] versus 47.1% Latvian.

[0] http://data.csb.gov.lv/pxweb/en/iedz/iedz__iedzrakst/IRG080....

[1] https://eng.lsm.lv/article/economy/business/belarusian-busin...

[sam_lowry_]

Having being in Latvia a few times and knowing the historical context... I distrust Latvian language statistics.

Still, even those statistics admit that Riga is mostly Russian-speaking [1]. This is where the IT crowd would land, anyway.

[1] https://www.csb.gov.lv/en/statistics/statistics-by-theme/pop...

[usego]

As the resident of Riga have to add that it depends on age. Young native Latvian people tend to avoid learning russian (but actually they have to while living in Riga). Also there is a constant goverment level pressure to ignore russian as a vital part of latvian life so you will always feel that you are not welcome in many places like the oficial institutions. But actually you could live for years there not speaking any latvian word :) Also it is worth to mention that english is starting to be more and more important (even more important than latvian) in daily life for IT people as foreign people in teams are much more usual now even than 5 years ago.

[Mediterraneo10]

This is quite inaccurate. Lithuania's minority of Russian speakers is not "sizable" at all. Much fewer ethnic Russians lived there historically compared to the other two Baltic states, and loads of the Soviet-era Russian transplants left after '91. Russian is pretty useless for doing business as a foreigner, people expect English.

In Latvia, especially Riga, Russian is spoken, but younger generations of ethnic Latvians are less and less welcoming of using it. Again, English is expected. There has been a distinct rise in shops in Riga where it's basically "Speak Latvian or English to me or GTFO".

Source: I'm a Russian speaker who visits all three Baltic countries at least 2-3 times a year, most recently last week.

[jen20]

Lithuania is an interesting case (I don't know much about the other Baltic states). I've been there at least twice a year for the last decade, and have helped organise one of the largest software conferences there for several of those. Several of my best friends (British and American expats) live in Vilnius and are married to Lithuanians.

My experience is anyone 30 or over speaks fluent Russian, but many of those will not admit to it - those in the 30-40 range are highly distrustful of anything Russian - and reasonably so given the history of the country. Anyone under 30 barely speaks Russian unless they themselves are immigrants from Russia.

I'd agree that in Lithuania a software engineering candidate that spoke Russian and not at least a "very good" standard of English or fluent Lithuanian would struggle to find work.

[agurk]

While Russian is common it's not ubiquitous. Latvia is 26.9% ethnically Russian and 34% speak it at home. 27% of students are partially instructed in Russian. A referendum to adopt Russian as a 2nd offical language was voted against in 2012.

Lithuania is 5.8% Russian with 39% speaking it as a foreign language.

Numbers from Wikipedia.

[Nginx487]

> As a last resort, Russia is still freer than Belarus politically

That's an arguable statement. Russia is also ruled by lifetime president, any protests are being brutally oppressed, opposition leaders are being assassinated or imprisoned, state TV airing anti-Western propaganda 24/7. Ukraine and Lithuania look much better choice by all measures.

[chupasaurus]

Russia isn't drastically freer, but the lack of visa or work permit requirement with almost the same employment process as Russian citizens is a good bonus, although local employers might lower the salaries for immigrants.

[watt]

"Predominantly"? Why did you choose to use such an ugly word. As a consequence of occupation by Soviet Union, and prolonged Russification policies, there is a sizeable population share in Latvia who understand and speak Russian language. It's a minority share, though only just (about 40%).

[rimliu]

Wait, what? Since when does Lithuania have a sizeable majority of Russian speakers?

[sam_lowry_]

Gosh... minority, of course.