Latvia has reached a milestone in its annual ranking in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) prepared by the anti-graft organization Transparency International, but has a long way to go if it wants to catch up with its neighbor to the north.

CPI data released Sept. 23 in Berlin show Latvia’s overall ranking has dropped, but its index score has improved. Out of 180 countries in the 2008 survey, Latvia ranks 52nd, slipping from its ranking of 51st last year.

But the 2008 index score of 5.0 means that Latvia for the first time is not viewed as having a serious problem with corruption. Last year, Latvia had a score of 4.8.

The index uses a combination of 13 research surveys to measure perception of public sector corruption. Nations are given a score from zero, meaning the country is viewed as highly corrupt, to 10, signifying highly clean. Countries that score below five are considered to have a serious corruption problem in the public sector.

Ten years ago, Latvia ranked 71st in the CPI with a score of 2.7, sharing its spot with Pakistan.

Latvia’s northern neighbor, Estonia, ranks 27th in the 2008 index with a score of 6.6, while Lithuania ranks 58th with a score of 4.6.

Topping the 2008 rankings are Denmark, Sweden and New Zealand, each with a score of 9.3. The United States is 18th with a score of 7.3, putting it on par with Japan and Belgium. Russia, with a score of 2.1, ranks 147th and is placed alongside Syria, Bangladesh and Kenya.

(Corrected 23 SEP 2008)

Latvians in America are to be thanked for their work in defending the homeland’s interests in the United States and should remain active in explaining the nation’s history, President Valdis Zatlers told an audience that viewed the documentary film The Soviet Story.

The film, written and directed by Edvīns Šnore, was screened Sept. 21 in the Scandinavia House in New York. The screening was the film’s U.S. premiere. The documentary argues that, before and during World War II, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union collaborated on learning methods of repression and mass killing. Russian officials have denounced the documentary.

Zatlers said the film will give a much larger audience a sense of the unmerciful repressions by the Soviet regime, according to a spokesperson for the president.

“Since the beginning of summer, when I saw the film for the first time, the world has changed,” Zatlers said. “And the warning at the end of the film, to not allow the rebirth of totalitarian ideology, has taken on new meaning.”

The events in Georgia, the president added, is reason to more clearly recognize the interests and values of the European Union and the NATO defense alliance, of which Latvia is a member.

“We have to continue to be able to and to know how to protect our statehood—our people’s values, way of life, traditions and dreams,” Zatlers said.

The president is on a weeklong visit to the United States to attend the 63rd session of the U.N. General Assembly, to meet with the leaders of several other nations and to deliver two speeches at the U.N. and at Columbia University.