The Republic of Latvia is located on the eastern Baltic coast, bordered by Estonia to the north, the Russian Federation to the east, Lithuania to the south and Belarus to the south west. It is strategically located between the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Western Europe and Scandinavia. It covers 64,589 km2, with a flat landscape and extensive forests covering 44% of the land area and forming Latvia’s most important natural resource …The national currency is the Lat (LVL), which replaced the Latvian rouble in 1993. The state language is Latvian.1