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RIGA, Latvia — Loitering outside a scrap market, Alexander Krasnopercev shrugs when asked whether he feels closer to his Latvian home or his Russian roots.

“It’s hard to find a job here if you’re Russian, because they discriminate,” Krasnopercev says, while waiting for odd jobs on a Wednesday afternoon. Behind him, vendors sit at dingy stalls next to piles of decommissioned machine parts and Soviet army fatigues.

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“I was born here; I lived my whole life here. But I’m still considered a foreigner.’”

Canada will deploy 450 soldiers to Latvia early next year, a show of force that’s part of a NATO effort to deter a repeat of Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops have been building up along its Baltic borders, and with the unexpected U.S. election victory of Donald Trump — who has signalled he’ll have a much less confrontational relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin than did Barack Obama — the region is clouded in uncertainty. Canadian troops will find themselves in the middle of swirling, geopolitical, economic and ethnic tensions.