(RFE/RL)
February 8, 2007 -- The Latvian parliament has approved a bill authorizing the government to sign a long-awaited border treaty with Russia.
Latvia's border with Russia was legally defined in 1920, but Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the annexation of 2 percent of Latvia's territory after the USSR occupied the Baltics in 1940.
The current border runs along the line drawn by Stalin, but is not legally defined. Latvian nationalists oppose the proposed border treaty, which would recognize that annexation.
(dpa, BNS)