The republic of Latvia is located on the eastern Baltic coast, bordered by Estonia to the north, the Russian Federation to the east, Lithuania to the south and Belarus to the south west. It covers 64 582 km ?, with a flat landscape and extensive forests covering 44% of the land area.

On November 18, 1918 the independent Republic of Latvia was proclaimed. But under the Molotov- Ribentrop agreement in 1939 Latvia and other Baltic States were allocated to the Soviet sphere of influence.

Since August 21, 1991 Latvia is an independent, democratic republic. In the 1990s Latvia started transition to market economy.

Latvia is a parliamentary republic governed by the State President and parliament ( Saeima ). The national currency is the Lat ( LVL) The state language is Latvian.

Latvia is administratively divided into 26 districts and 7 cities ( the district level ) and 483 municipalities.

The main religions are Lutheran (the largest proportion ) and Roman Catholic.