Dominicans with Russian names

Factual Questions
1

Baseball fans all know about Vladimir Guerrero, and maybe Vladimir Perez and Vladimir Nunez, too - all natives of the Dominican Republic, like many other major leaguers. For better or worse, athletes are the best-known Dominicans in the US (I’d mention Ivan Rodriguez if he weren’t Puerto Rican).

I also know of a locally-prominent Dominican ballplayer named Yuri Sanchez, and I know of Dominican women named Olga and Natalia too. So what gives? It is just a coincidence that they all have Russian names? Is it a fad in the DR to give children Russian names, no more explicably than any other fad? Or is there some history of Russian humanitarian involvement there that led to this peculiar-sounding naming custom?

2

While I don’t know specifically about the case in the Dominican Republic, “foreign” names are very popular here in Panama. I know people named Ivan, Natalia, Olga, Tania, Natcha (Natasha), Boris, etc. (Although I can’t recall a local Vladimir, a few months ago I met a latino from Belize by that name.)

There are plenty of other kinds of “foreign” or classical names that are found here as well - Omar, Nefertaris, Isis, Baltasar, Alcibiades, Aladino (Alladin), Armaguedon (Armageddon), and many others.