EDIT: those country thugs may be Russian, but I doubt that because Kurzeme (Curland- western part of Latvia) has low % of Russians.
Courland has an interesting history. In the 13th C, the Livonian Order, a branch of the Teutonic Knights took over the area and ruled for 300 years. Middle Ages religious knights on horses killing pagans and whatnot.
Then in 1561, Courland became a duchy and the Duke of Courland became a fairly powerful local player. During Courland's 17thC heyday, KZ's town Liepaja became a major irona nd shipbuildign center, with one of the largets merchant fleets in Europe. Courland even got in on the European colonization craze, taking over an island in the mouth of the Gambian River, and claiming Tobago in 1637 and running it off an on for a few decades (seems everybody wanted Tobago and it changed hands among Brits, French, Ditch, Spanish and Courlanders dozens of times). Tobago is where the word tobacco is believed to be derived from.
Trade and war were kind of interrelated cocnepts in the early mecanilist days (and still are come to think of it -- cf Bush and Iraq oil).
Unfortunately tucked between Sweden (then a major power), an expanding Russia, and the Lithuanian-Poland Empire (the biggest in Europe in the 16th/17th C), Courland lasted a little over 150 years.
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