I.

Introduction

Latvia (in Latvian, Latvija), republic in north-eastern Europe, bordered on the north by Estonia and the Gulf of Riga, an inlet of the Baltic Sea; on the east by Russia; on the south by Belarus and Lithuania; and on the west by the Baltic Sea. The area of Latvia is about 63,700 sq km (24,600 sq mi). Riga, the capital and largest city, is also the country’s chief port.

II.

Land and Resources

Latvia consists for the most part of a low-lying plain with some moderate elevations in the east, the tallest of which is 311 m (1,020 ft). The landscape bears traces of glaciation and includes numerous lakes, streams, marshes, and peat bogs. The coastline (547 km/340 mi) is relatively unindented, with many sandy beaches.

A.

Rivers and Lakes

The principal river is the Daugava River, which originates in Russia. On it are the republic’s major hydroelectric power stations.

B.

Climate

The climate is dominated by marine influences, although more continental conditions, with greater climatic variation, exist in the eastern portion of the republic; in the west, summers are cooler and winters are milder. In Latvia snow covers the ground from two to more than four months of the year. Summers are frequently hot, with average daily temperatures exceeding 25° C (80° F).

C.

Plants and Animals

About one quarter of Latvia is forested, mainly with pine, spruce, birch, and aspen. Deer and wild boar are common, and a wide variety of birds, including the black stork, resides in the country.

D.

Environmental Concerns

Like most former republics of the USSR, Latvia suffers the negative environmental legacy of decades of ecological and environmental mismanagement by a government that never implemented emission-control technologies. Industrial pollution continues to be a problem due to the high cost of upgrading or replacing existing technologies and facilities. Industrial, agricultural, and municipal enterprises have produced dangerous levels of water pollution. Water pollution is especially severe in the Daugava River and the Gulf of Riga because of the outflow of untreated waste water at Riga and industrial discharge from factories along the Daugava and its tributaries. In addition, chemicals and petroleum products at military bases have contaminated soil and groundwater.

Air pollution in Latvia is particularly heavy during windless, cloudy weather. The main air pollutants are sulphur dioxide, ammonia, phenols, formaldehyde, and nitrogen oxides. Latvia suffers from high levels of acid rain, which has defoliated more than half the country's trees. In addition, the extraction of peat reserves continues to damage wildlife habitats. In 1995, 46.4 per cent of the country's total land area was forested. Environmental issues began to be discussed publicly in the late 1980s as part of Latvia's independence movement. The government has designated 12.5 per cent (1997) of the country protected and has ratified international environmental agreements pertaining to air pollution, biodiversity, climate change, endangered species, hazardous wastes, ozone layer protection, ship pollution, and wetlands.

III.

Population

The population of the republic is 2,245,423 (2008 estimate). Latvians constitute 59 per cent of the population; before annexation in 1940 by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), they comprised three quarters of the population. Russians, who live mostly in Latvia’s urban areas, make up the largest minority with around 29 per cent of the population. Other minorities include Ukrainians, Belorussians, Lithuanians, Jews, Estonians, and Poles.

A.

Population Characteristics

Latvia is highly urbanized. Population density is 35 people per sq km (91 per sq mi). About 66 per cent of the population lives in urban areas, with about a third of the country’s inhabitants residing in the capital, Riga.

B.

Principal Cities

Riga has a population of 735,241 (2004 estimate). Other important cities include Daugavpils, population 111,231 (2004 estimate), and Liepāja, 86,496 (2004 estimate). Numerous towns and small cities are located along the country’s rivers, waterways, and coastal areas.

C.

Religion

Lutheranism is the traditional religion of the Latvians. Other forms of Christianity, such as Roman Catholicism in eastern Latvia, are practised to various degrees.

D.

Language

Latvian is the official language, spoken by much of the population. Eastern Yiddish is reportedly a mother tongue for about 40,000 Jewish Latvians, while around 8,000 people speak Baltic Romani, an Indo-Iranian language. Russian is widely spoken by those of Russian extraction.

E.

Education

Latvia has five universities, the oldest being the Riga Technical University (1862); other establishments are the University of Latvia (1919), Latvia University of Agriculture (1939), Latvian Academy of Medicine (1919), and Daugavpils Pedagogical University (1923).

IV.

Economy

In 2004 Latvia’s gross national product (GNP) was US$12,901 million, equivalent to US$8,100 per head (World Bank estimate). Industry is the leading sector in Latvia’s economy and accounted for about 22 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and provided about 26 per cent of employment. In early 1994 about 60 per cent of industrial activity was accounted for by state-controlled businesses. There are three important ports: Riga, Ventspils, and Liepāja.

A.

Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing

The contribution of agriculture to the GDP dropped to 4 per cent, and provided about 12 per cent of employment. By the mid-1990s almost 40 per cent of arable land had been privatized. The chief agricultural occupations in Latvia are livestock-raising and dairy-farming. Crops include grain, potatoes, flax, and sugar beet. The catch of fish, principally cod and herring, is economically important. Latvia is a notable source of forest products, such as paper and sawn timber.

B.

Mining

Mineral resources include peat, gravel, sand, and limestone.

C.

Manufacturing

The country is an important producer of electric railway passenger carriages and consumer goods, such as radios and refrigerators. Other products include steel, cement, processed food, and textiles (especially woollens).

D.

Currency and Banking

Latvian officials promoted economic independence by abandoning the Russian rouble. The Latvian rouble, the rublis, which was first issued in May 1992 as a transitional currency designed to compensate for shortages of Russian roubles in the country, became Latvia’s official currency in May 1993. Later the same month, the lat, the country’s new currency, began replacing the rublis as the sole legal tender (0.48 lats equalled US$1; early 2008). The central bank is the Bank of Latvia (Latvijas Banka).

V.

Government

The present republic of Latvia is a legal successor to the independent republic of the same name that existed from 1918 to 1940. The 1922 constitution is recognized as the country’s supreme legal document, and was fully restored in July 1993.

Citizenship and voting eligibility laws in the country changed considerably during the early 1990s. All residents, including Soviet military personnel, were eligible to vote in the country’s first multi-party elections of the national (Soviet) legislature in 1990. In 1993, however, restrictions on voting eligibility were imposed. Citizens of Latvia who were citizens before 1940 and their descendants are still eligible to vote, regardless of ethnicity. Other inhabitants are required to meet certain residency requirements for naturalization and pass a proficiency exam in Latvian. A new citizenship bill, allowing for the naturalization of a large number of non-citizens as well as ethnic Latvians, was adopted in the Saeima (parliament) in August 1994. It was followed by further strict citizenship laws in 1998 and 2006.

A.

Executive and Legislature

The national legislature of Latvia, called the Saeima, is a unicameral body composed of 100 members. The members are elected by popular vote to four-year terms by proportional representation. The legislature elects a president by secret ballot, to serve as head of state; the president serves a term of four years and may not remain in office for more than two terms. He or she is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces. With the approval of the legislature, the president selects a prime minister and a Cabinet, who carry out the day-to-day operations of government.

B.

Political Parties

There are about 40 registered parties and political groupings active in Latvia. Since the 2006 parliamentary election the main parties represented in the Saeima have included: the People’s Party (Tautas Partija); the Union of Greens and Farmers (Zalo un Semnieku Savieniba); centrist New Era Party (Jaunais Laiks); Harmony Centre (Saskanas Centrs); a coalition between Latvia’s First Party (Latvijas Pirmâ Partija) and Latvian Way (Latvijas Ceïš); the conservative For Fatherland and Freedom (Tevzemei un Brivibai/LNNK); and For Human Rights in United Latvia (Par Cilveka Tiesibam Vienota Latvija).

C.

Judiciary

The Supreme Court, resident in Riga, is the highest organ of justice in Latvia; all appointments of the justices have to be approved by the Saeima. On a lower level, there exist regional, district, and city courts. The Constitutional Court, established in 1996, consists of seven judges approved by the Saeima; three of them are delegated by the Saeima itself, two are candidates of the government, and the remaining two are nominated by the Supreme Court.

D.

Local Government

A local government reform, aimed at a wide-reaching democratization and decentralization of power, was launched in 1993. The autonomy of local administration was granted in the 1994 Law on Local Government; in 1996 the Saeima approved the European Charter of Local Self-Government, which has been implemented almost entirely. Local government in Latvia operates on two levels, municipal and regional. On the municipal level, there are 7 city municipalities, 70 town municipalities, and 486 rural municipalities. Municipal councils are responsible, in the main, for public order, transport, sanitation, and the construction and maintenance of buildings. On the regional level, there are 7 republican cities and 26 districts (rajons); regional councils are responsible for public health, protection of natural reserves and cultural monuments, and prevention of natural disasters. Cities are thus represented on both levels of local government. Members of the councils are elected for four-year terms in equal, direct, and proportional elections. The Union of Local and Regional Government of Latvia (ULRGL) represents local governments in their relations with the state.

E.

Health and Welfare

Life expectancy at birth (2008 estimate) is 66.7 years for males and 77.3 for females. In 2001, 11 per cent of total government expenditure was spent on health care; there were 319 people to every doctor in 2006. Infant mortality in 2008 was 9 deaths per 1,000 live births.

F.

Defence

In 2003, Latvia’s annual defence budget was an estimated US$194 million. The republic has armed forces totalling 5,238 personnel, including 1,600 conscripts aged 19 who serve for a period of 12 months. Latvia aims to phase out conscription in 2007. The country has an army of 1,817, a navy of 685, and an air force of 255 personnel. In addition there is a border guard of 3,200. In 1998, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania formed a joint naval unit BALTRON. In November 2002 Latvia was formally invited to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); it became a member in April 2004.

G.

International Organizations

Latvia is a member of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS), the Council of Europe (CE), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Partnership for Peace (PFP), the United Nations (UN), the World Trade Organization (WTO), NATO, and the European Union (EU). Latvia was never a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

VI.

History

Latvian people first appeared in what is now Latvia during the 9th century ad. Since the 13th century Latvia has been successively dominated by Germany, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, and Russia. German Crusaders began the conversion of the Baltic peoples to Christianity early in the 13th century, and from 1237 to 1561 Latvia was part of Livonia, the domain of the Teutonic Knights. When Livonia broke up in 1561, Poland absorbed the provinces of Latgale and Vidzeme to the north of the Daugava River. Kurzeme and Zemgale provinces, to the south and west, became Kurland, an independent duchy under Polish control. Sweden conquered Riga and Vidzeme in 1621 but lost both to Russia in the early 18th century. By 1795, after the partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793, and 1795, Russia controlled all of Latvia.

Although serfdom in Latvia, prevalent since German domination, was abolished by the Russians in the early 19th century, the German and Russian landowning class remained autocratic. The Latvians, however, were able, through political and cultural associations, to work for their complete liberation. The Russian Revolution furnished the desired opportunity, and on November 18, 1918, Latvia proclaimed itself an independent republic. Later, Bolshevik troops captured Riga and supplanted the moderate Latvian government with a Russian-sponsored regime. After national and Allied troops expelled Russian troops from Latvia in 1920, a Latvian-Russian peace treaty stipulated that Russia would respect Latvia’s sovereignty.

In the 1930s Latvia placed its economy on a sound footing. It adopted a neutral position after the outbreak of World War II. On October 5, 1939, Latvia signed a mutual-assistance treaty with the USSR and, later, a reparations convention with Germany. In June 1940, following the fall of France, the USSR accused Latvia of forming, with neighbouring Estonia, a secret anti-Soviet military alliance, and Soviet forces occupied the country. After elections supervised by the Soviet army, a Communist regime was installed, and on August 5, 1940, Latvia became a constituent republic of the USSR. It was occupied by Germany from 1941 to 1945, after which it again became a part of the USSR. Latvian resistance to Soviet administrative measures, such as the collectivization of agriculture, continued for some time, but by 1950 Sovietization was virtually complete.

A.

After Independence

Political liberalization in the USSR during the late 1980s sparked a revival of Latvian nationalism. After Communism collapsed in the USSR in August 1991, the Soviet government formally recognized the independence of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania on September 6, and all three were admitted to the United Nations later that month. Latvia held its first parliamentary elections since independence in June 1993. The new parliament elected Guntis Ulmanis, an economist, as president. Russian troops were officially withdrawn by August 31, 1994, though a small contingent of 3,000 Russian military personnel has remained. An agreement between the two countries granted Russia the right to operate one early-warning radar base in Skrunda until 1998; the second radar base at Skrunda was blown up in May 1995.

Latvia signed associate membership agreements with the European Union (EU) in April 1995 and made a formal application for EU membership in October. In legislative elections held in September, populist parties of both the right and left performed well in the poll, and the newly formed centre-left Samnieks (commonly translated in English as “In Charge” or “The Master”) took support from Latvia’s Way, which had formed the previous minority government. A coalition government was eventually formed in December, on the third attempt, led by Andris Skele of the Samnieks. Agreement on a long-standing maritime dispute with Estonia was reached in May 1996. The Saeima adopted a declaration in August regarding Latvian claims to Russian territory in the Pskov region. In January 1997 Prime Minister Skele resigned and was re-nominated by President Ulmanis, after consultations with the Saeima.

The resignation in May of the defence minister Andrejs Krastins prompted a further investigation into corruption allegations that culminated in the collapse of Skele’s government in July. Guntars Krasts, economy minister in the outgoing administration, was invited to form a government by President Ulmanis. When the corruption investigation reported its findings in September, 34 of the 48 deputies investigated were reported to have infringed anti-corruption laws. A stand-by credit for some US$45 million to support the government’s programme of economic reform was announced by the International Monetary Fund in October. In November the Saeima approved a constitutional amendment which extended the presidential and legislative terms from three years to four.

Following a general election in October 1998 a new three-party, minority coalition government, headed by Vilis Kristopans of the centrist Latvia's Way Party, was formed in November. The People's Party gained 24 seats, the most in the 100-seat Saeima, but in spite of lengthy negotiations did not form part of the coalition. The prime minister in the outgoing administration, Guntars Krasts, was appointed deputy prime minister. In April 1999 the death penalty was abolished. In July, Vaira Vika-Freiberga became the first woman to become head of state of a former Communist country in Eastern Europe; she was elected by 53 votes to 20 in the Saeima, defeating the former foreign minister Valdis Birkas. One of her first actions was to veto a new law that would make Latvian the country's official language as discriminatory to Latvia's Russian minority, following protests from Russia and the EU. Following Kristopan's resignation over his failure to address the country's mounting economic problems, Skele was confirmed as the new prime minister—he pledged to revise the language law, and it was duly passed in December. Latvia's attitude towards Nazi war criminals was questioned by the discovery in Britain of Latvian-born Konrad Kalejs, wanted for alleged membership of a notorious Latvian death squad responsible for the deaths of over 30,000 people, mainly Jews, during World War II. The Latvian government called for a conference in February 2000 to enable the pooling of evidence against Kalejs from countries including Britain, Australia, and the United States to ascertain whether a case could be constructed. A separate investigation that month linked Skele and Birkas, now justice minister, to a paedophile ring active in Riga; both men denied the allegation, claiming that it was politically motivated. Both men were subsequently (August 2000) cleared of the allegations.

Nonetheless, the coalition collapsed in April following a dispute over the future and leadership of the Latvian Privatization Agency (LPA). A new ruling coalition was formed, with Andris Berzins, the mayor of Riga, as prime minister. The new Cabinet, consisting of representatives of the People’s Party, the Latvian Way and the Fatherland and Freedom groupings, and the New Party, was approved by the Saeima in early May. Relations with Russia remained strained throughout the year, especially after the 1999 language law, regulating language proficiency standards and transliteration practices, was implemented in August 2000. The political landscape in Latvia began to change in late 2000, and municipal elections held in March 2001 seemed to indicate that the opposition was gaining increasing support in the run-up to parliamentary elections planned for October 5, 2002. In May 2002 parliament voted to change the law requiring all parliamentary candidates to be native Latvian speakers, one of the final stumbling blocks to joining the European Union.

The elections proved a victory for the newly formed New Era Party of Einars Repse; the party took 26 seats in the 100-seat Saeima but without an overall majority needed to find coalition partners before taking office. Repse, the former head of the Central Bank, was seen as a charismatic figure whose electoral victory had been secured on a manifesto of reducing taxes, tackling bureaucracy, and pushing forward for membership of NATO and the EU. Latvia was formally invited to join NATO in November. The following month the European Union, likewise, issued a formal invitation; a referendum on the issue took place in September 2003, when 67 per cent of the voters supported Latvia’s EU membership. In June 2003 President Vike-Freiberga was re-elected by the Saeima to a second four-year term of office. The coalition government collapsed in February 2004, when the First Party withdrew its support; Indulis Emsis of the Green and Farmers’ Union emerged as prime minister in a new coalition. In April 2004, Latvia joined NATO; in May, the republic formally entered into membership of the EU. However, a draft budget was rejected in October and the government resigned. A new government, led by Aigars Kalvitis, was approved in December 2004.

The following June the Latvian parliament ratified the proposed EU constitution. Parliamentary elections held in October 2006 saw victory for the coalition led by Kalvitis’s People’s Party. In a thawing of the previously frosty relations with Russia, a border treaty between the two countries was signed in March 2007. Under the treaty, Latvia dropped territorial claims on a district in the neighbouring Russian region of Pskov, which was part of the Baltic state before World War II. In May 2007 Valdis Zatlers was elected president in succession to Vaira Vike-Freiberga, winning 58 votes in the parliamentary vote. Prime Minister Kalvitis resigned in December after attempting to dismiss an anti-corruption investigator, a move that led to street protests that eventually forced him from office; he was replaced by Ivars Godmanis.