Putin welcome signing of Russia-Latvia border treaty

Moscow, Mar 28 (UNI) President Vladimir Putin today hailed the signing of Russia-Latvia border treaty, congratulating the Russian and Latvian governments for the historic step towards the improvement of relations between the two countries.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and his visiting Latvian counterpart Aigars Kalvitis yesterday signed the treaty in Moscow.

During a meeting with Kalvitis on Wednesday, Presdient Putin said he hoped ''The Latvian parliamentarians and the Russian State Duma deputies will positively respond to what the governments of the two countries have done.'' He, however, noted that, although the signing of a border treaty was an ''important stage in the development of bilateral relations, it certainly cannot resolve all issues and problems that exist between the two countries.'' The border treaty was drawn up ten years ago, but both countries had previously failed to ratify it because of disagreements about the Soviet past.

Previous attempts to sign the treaty had failed because of disagreement over whether Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union or - as Russia says - joined voluntarily in 1940.

Ties between the countries have rarely been more than frosty since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

There has also been considerable opposition to the agreement within Latvia because the post-Soviet border differs from the pre-Soviet one, turning a small piece of what was Latvia into Russian soil.

UNI