Latvia's electorate head to the polls on Saturday with a growing rift between the country's Latvian majority and its Russian-speaking minority over their place in society.

There is widespread anger over Moscow's involvement in the conflict in Ukraine, with Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins' center-right coalition government imposing limits on the use of the Russian language in public life. 

The extent to which these efforts will materialize is at stake in the parliamentry election, with issues as such soaring energy costs and high inflation pushed largely to the sidelines amid questions of national identity and security concerns.

Many of the country's Russians feel they are now being discrimated against.

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But Rihards Kols, deputy head of the conservative National Alliance party, insisted: "What has been the problem for (Russian speakers), for the last 30 years, to learn the state language? If you didn't, you don't want to be a full member of the society."

His grouping, as well as its coalition partner, Karins' centrist New Unity party, are benefiting from their aggressive approach to Russia in the run-up to the election. Opinion polls show the New Unity party winning the largest number of votes, with around 20 percent support.

Before the conflict began in February, in what Moscow described as a 'special military operation', tens of thousands of Russian speakers in Latvia used to gather every May 9 around a monument in Riga to commemorate the Soviet victory in World War Two.

Their gatherings have since been banned and the 84-meter structure in the capital's center was crushed with a bulldozer on orders from a government dominated by ethnic Latvians who would now prefer to put their Soviet Union past behind them. They left the bloc in 1991.

TV broadcasts from Russia, formerly watched by many, have also been banned, the state language board has proposed renaming a central Riga street commemorating Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, and the government has put forward plans to switch all education to Latvian and to swiftly phase out instruction in Russian.

These changes are being supported by many ethnic Latvians.

But many of the country's Russians, who make up about a quarter of the population of 1.9 million, are left feeling they may be losing their place in society.

"Many Russians do not feel psychological comfort currently here in Latvia," Arnis Kaktins, a sociologist, said.

The Russian minority grew significantly while Latvia was ruled from Moscow, fueled by settlers.

Ethnic Latvians largely see the country's incorporation into the Soviet Union in 1940 as illegal, the Soviet victory in 1945 as a renewal of the brutal occupation, and contemporary Russia as a threat.

Russian-speakers tend to believe Latvia joined Soviet Union willingly, and that Russia - at least before the Ukraine conflict - is a friendly country, Kaktins said.

"Before the Ukrainian war, many Russian speakers had a very favorable view about President Vladimir Putin. Then the war started, which was a shock to them."

Many ethnic Russians now refuse to speak to pollsters, indicating unease about voicing their views, he said.

Karins believes the Ukraine conflict consolidated his nation, and said that if re-elected he would integrate the Russian minority by having the country educate its children in the Latvian language.

"We're putting all of our focus on the youth, to make sure that regardless of what language is spoken at home, that the child grows up with all of the advantages of knowing our language, knowing our culture," Karins said.

For Jelena Matjakubova, a teacher at a school in Riga and head of Russian Culture Society, sidelining the Russian language and culture will mean deepening tensions between the two ethnic groups.

"At the most critical moment, when the society needs to rally together, they suddenly begin pushing through the most painful issues," she said.

Matjakubova now speaks only Russian in public, as a protest against perceived disrespect. "If I get a polite response, I switch to Latvian," she added.