<HTML>--Baltic Republics probably aren't too crazy about Russian for historical reasons. On top of the machinations of empre, Russian, Soviet and Hitler-Stalin Pact, the Baltics were a favored place for Russian military officers to retire. Latvia for instance is well over 60% Russian, and Russians tended not to learn the local language.     This does not explain how supposedly democratic post-Soviet nationality laws got so hostile toward Russians but there were certainly moves to make the local language the official language and to require knowledge of that language for citizenship.     None of that explains why anyone thinks Riga is a shitty city, but I think it's more run-down, more Soviet to begin with that, say Tallinn,. --As for saying "govno" on television, I haven't heard that, but Putin's "go get circumcised" comment didn't exactly get bleeped! DC In a message dated 5/25/2003 8:12:48 AM Pacific Daylight Time, itschris13@hotmail.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">Subj:Re: [lbo-talk] tATu on TV in OZ..... Date:5/25/2003 8:12:48 AM Pacific Daylight Time From:<A HREF="mailto:itschris13@hotmail.com">itschris13@hotmail.com</A> Reply-to:<A HREF="mailto:lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org">lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org</A> To:<A HREF="mailto:lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org">lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org</A> Sent from the Internet >Chris Doss wrote: > >>When Volkova was asked "how do you like Riga?" in the TV interview she >>answered, "It's a pretty shitty city." > >I don't get this. You said Russians are prudish, and there's a whole >register of obscene speech that is seriously scandalous. But she can cuss >on TV? > She said "drab," actually. I was translating liberally. :) It was on Latvian TV anyway. In any case "shitty" (which would be "gavno") isn't that obscene in Russian. Don't think I've heard it on TV though. _________________________________________________________________ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE*  http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk </BLOCKQUOTE> </HTML>