Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east, Belarus to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Sweden to the west. Latvia covers an area of 64,589 km2 (24,938 sq mi), with a population of 1.9 million. The country has a temperate seasonal climate. Its capital and largest city is Riga. Latvians belong to the ethnolinguistic group of the Balts and speak Latvian, one of the only two surviving Baltic languages. Russians are the most prominent minority in the country, at almost a quarter of the population.
Russian is an East Slavic language, spoken primarily in Russia. It is the native language of the Russians and belongs to the Indo-European language family. It is one of four living East Slavic languages, and is also a part of the larger Balto-Slavic languages. It was the de facto and de jure official language of the former Soviet Union. Russian has remained an official language in independent Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, and is still commonly used as a lingua franca in Ukraine, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and to a lesser extent in the Baltic states and Israel.
Riga is the capital, primate and the largest city of Latvia. Home to 605,802 inhabitants, the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga metropolitan area, which stretches beyond the city limits, is estimated at 860,142. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Baltic Sea. Riga's territory covers 307.17 km2 (118.60 sq mi) and lies 1–10 m (3.3–32.8 ft) above sea level, on a flat and sandy plain.
The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Latvia or simply Latvia, was de facto one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union between 1940–1941 and 1944–1990.
Tet is a Latvian internet service provider, telecommunications, technology and entertainment company. It has also been an electricity service provider since 2017.
Renārs Kaupers is a Latvian pop/rock singer, instrumentalist, and songwriter who is the vocalist of the band Prāta Vētra.
Latvijas Televīzija is the state-owned public service television broadcaster in Latvia. LTV operates two channels, LTV1 in Latvian and LTV7 in Latvian with selected programming in Russian.
Television in Latvia was first tested in 1937 and introduced in 1954. Latvia was the first country in the Baltic States which started broadcasting.
Latvia is one of the three post-Soviet Baltic states having regained independence in 1991 and since 2004 is a member State of the European Union. After its independence there have been fundamental changes of political, economic and social nature that have turned Latvia into a democratic country with a free market economy. This reflects on the mass media landscape which is considered well-developed despite being subjected to a limited market and a linguistic and cultural split between Latvian (58.2%) and Russian speakers (37.5%). In 2017 Freedom House defined Latvia's press freedom status as “free", assigning to the country's press freedom a score of 26/100. The 2017 World Press Freedom Index prepared annually by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) states that media in Latvia have a "two-speed freedom", underlying different levels of freedom for Latvian-language and Russian-language media. According to RSF's Index the country is ranked 28th among 180 countries.
BabyTV is a multilingual, international television channel for babies, toddlers and preschoolers aged 3 or lower. The channel is owned and operated by Baby Network Limited, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment division of The Walt Disney Company, with Disney handling television distribution. It is headquartered in London and was first launched in 2003 in Israel and 2005 in the United Kingdom. BabyTV is distributed in over 100 countries, broadcasting in 18 languages. The channel broadcasts shows without television commercial interruptions. In the United States, the channel is distributed by Walt Disney Television.
Latvia–Russia relations are the bilateral foreign relations between Latvia and Russia. Latvia has an embassy in Moscow. Russia has an embassy in Riga.
RTR-Planeta is the international service of VGTRK, a state-owned broadcaster in Russia. It is available throughout the world via cable and satellite.
Marija Naumova-Bullīta, known professionally as Marija Naumova, is a Latvian singer. Under the stage name Marie N, she sings a broad range of music ranging from pop to musical theatre and jazz, and has recorded several albums, with songs in Latvian, French, English, Russian and Portuguese. In 2002, she won the Eurovision Song Contest for Latvia with her song "I Wanna".
The Social Democratic Party "Harmony", also commonly referred to as Harmony (Saskaņa), is a social-democratic political party in Latvia. It was the largest political party in the Saeima, representing the Russian minority of Latvia, before losing all of its parliamentary seats in the 2022 Latvian parliamentary election. It is currently led by Jānis Urbanovičs.
TV Rain is an independent Russian television channel. Launched in 2010, it has been based in the Netherlands since 2023. It focuses on news, discussions, culture, politics, business reports, and documentaries. TV Rain is owned by journalist Natalya Sindeyeva. Its slogan is "Optimistic Channel."
Aminata Savadogo, occasionally known as simply Aminata, is a Latvian singer, songwriter, record producer, and model. She represented Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "Love Injected". She released her debut studio album, Inner Voice, in April 2015.
In Russia, Latvians are a small ethnic minority scattered across its various regions. In the 2010 census, 18,979 in Russia identified as ethnic Latvian, down from 28,520 in 2002.
Nicktoons is a European international pay television network operated by Paramount Networks EMEAA. Launched on 1 February 2017, international version of the American TV channel Nicktoons, the network serves many of the countries in the European Union, and features several feeds differentiated by time zones and local languages being the primary audio feed offered, with other languages offered through second audio program options. Other networks may display the domestic language as open-access subtitles.
Mir, known formally as the International Television and Radio Company "Mir" is a multinational public television broadcaster, broadcasting programs in Russian and featuring programming from all the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Events in the year 2022 in Latvia.
