Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"Latvia, the middle Baltic state centered on the port and capital city of Riga, was tightly integrated into the Soviet system throughout Moscow’s long domination. Here, as in Estonia, about one-quarter of its population of 2 million is ethnic Russian. Consider this: 25 years ago, virtually all of Latvia’s trade was with the Soviet Union. Today its principal trading partners are Germany, the United Kingdom, and Sweden. In 2014, Latvia once again asserted its European reorientation by joining the Euro zone." [Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts, 17th Edition, p. 188]