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European and Russian media convey different narratives based on differing perceptions. Russian-speakers living in Latvia and Finland, countries adjacent to Russia, have to position and negotiate their sense of identity and belonging as they cope with a flood of contradictory information from Russianlanguage and European sources. Despite many differences, historical parallels between Finland and Latvia can be drawn to propose a history of the Russianlanguage media and Russian diasporas in both lands. This history starts with the Russian conquest of Latvia (1710) and Finland (1809), continues through the Soviet era (1940-1990), and ends with the post-Soviet transformation (1991-2021).