18 ANDREJEVA v. LATVIA JUDGMENT 3 October, it was approved by the State Duma (the lower house of the Russian Parliament), and on 15 October by the Federation Council (the upper house). Article 3 of the agreement expressly extends its scope to “permanently resident non-citizens” of Latvia. Article 10 § 1 provides that, in calculating a retirement pension, each of the parties is to take into account the aggregate period of employment of the person concerned in both countries. Article 4 § 2 provides for an exception to the effect that the principle of equality between nationals and residents of both States does not apply to the specific arrangements for the calculation of Latvian citizens’ periods of employment prior to 1991. 45. Article 25 of the agreement shares the financial burden of retirement pensions between the two States where the person concerned has become entitled to such a pension after the agreement’s entry into force. The pension in respect of employment prior to 1 January 1991 is paid by the State in which the beneficiary is resident at the time of claiming the pension. However, in respect of the period after that date, each Contracting Party has undertaken to cover the periods of employment in its own territory. Article 26 states that a pension that has already been granted before the entry into force of the agreement may also be recalculated on that basis at the express request of the beneficiary; however, the recalculation cannot be applied until after the agreement has come into force. THE LAW I. THE GOVERNMENT’S PRELIMINARY OBJECTIONS A. The applicant’s “victim” status 46. In their observations on the merits of the case, filed with the Chamber on 20 October 2006, the Government raised a plea of inadmissibility, arguing that the applicant had partly ceased to be a “victim” within the meaning of Article 34 of the Convention. In that connection, they pointed out that in February 2000 the Social-Insurance Agency had recalculated the applicant’s pension to include her years of service for entities based in Ukraine; accordingly, she no longer had any grounds for maintaining her complaint under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 in respect of the period from 1973 to 1981. 47. The Government maintained that objection before the Grand Chamber. They pointed out that since February 2000 the applicant had received LVL 28.67 (approximately EUR 40.80) more than before. They