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 time, often replacing those who were deported. The high influx of Russians and the removal of Latvian as the official language caused further deteriorations in the Latvia-Russian relations between citizens. In 1991, Latvia regained independence from the USSR through the Latvian independence and democracy poll, 1991. On April 2004 Latvia expelled Second Secretary of the Russian Embassy in Rīga Pyotr Uzhumov, who had allegedly trying to gather information on Latvia's defence forces, for activities "incompatible with his diplomatic status" to which Russia responded by expelling first secretary of the Latvian Embassy in Moscow. In 2007, the border treaty between the