Swedish Baltic Sea Water Award 2009 Helsinki Commission (HELCOM), Finland HELCOM works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution through intergovernmental co-operation between Denmark, Estonia, the European Community, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden. HELCOM is governing the "Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area" (the Helsinki Convention) and has shown exemplary commitment to improving the Baltic Sea through the adoption of the Baltic Sea Action Plan. 2008 Prof. Krzysztof Edward Skóra, Hel Marine Station at the University of Gdańsk, Poland Professor Skóra received the award for his research which
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