Baltic Sea Convention is the Helsinki Commission, also known as HELCOM, or Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission. The present contracting parties are Denmark, Estonia, the European Community, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden. The ratification instruments were deposited by the European Community, Germany, Latvia and Sweden in 1994, by Estonia and Finland in 1995, by Denmark in 1996, by Lithuania in 1997 and by Poland and Russia in November 1999. Notes Bibliography Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, enclosed by Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, northwest Russia, Poland, Germany and the North
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