Presidents Valdis Zatlers of Latvia and Dmitri Medvedev of Russia used the first official post-Soviet visit by a Latvian head of state to announce the establishment of a joint commission to study the history of the two countries, a major sticking point in their relations. Russia objects to Latvia and other Baltic countries referring to their decades as part of the Soviet Union as an occupation, and insists that Latvians collaborated with the Nazis. They also discussed the status of Latvia’s 335,000 non-citizens, another unresolved issue from Soviet rule, of whom over 221,000 are ethnic Russians.