Northern Dimension to include Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, the importance of the Northern Dimension has increased considerably: eight EU Member States (Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Sweden) surround the Baltic Sea, and the EU’s shared border with Russia has lengthened. Recent years have seen far-reaching changes in the geopolitical map of northern Europe. The Baltic States regained their independence in 1991. Finland and Sweden joined the EU in 1995, and Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland in 2004. These events greatly increased the Northern and Baltic “presence” of the EU, and substantially lengthened the common border shared by the
Latvia–Russia relations of Latvia. Russia often criticizes Latvia for alleged discrimination against the Russian-speaking population. Russia has also participated in a number of cases of complaints against Latvia in the European Court of Human Rights as a third party. These cases also dealt with the violation of the rights of the Russian minority in Latvia. Such cases included "Slivenko v. Latvia", "Kononov v. Latvia", "Vikulov and others v. Latvia", "Sisojeva And Others v Latvia", and "Vasilevskiy v. Latvia". While some agreements have been signed by representatives of Latvia and Russia, not all have been passed by their respective legislatures and are therefore