the country latvia is one of the three baltic states, located south of estonia, north of lithunia, and west of russia. its population is 2 mio, and the capital city is riga. the dominating ethnic group are latvians with 63%; the largest non-latvian group are russians with 24%.
history: the area of latvia, and especially riga, was for centuries under german, swedish, polish and russian rule. in 1918 eventually the republic of latvia was established, after breaking away from the russian empire. yet soon the sowjet union controlled latvia. only in 1991 it achieved full independence.
latvia is a now a member of the world trade organization (1999) and the european union (2004).
i've visited riga in december 2007, in an unusual way: i went there on a freight ship from kiel/germany to riga and returned by bus from riga to hamburg/germany.