6 SISOJEVA AND OTHERS v. LATVIA JUDGMENT 25. In a letter of 15 May 1998 the Joint Committee for the implementation of the agreement between the Government of Latvia and the Government of the Russian Federation on social-welfare arrangements for retired members of the Russian armed forces and their family members resident in Latvia (“the Russian-Latvian agreement” – see paragraph 53 below) requested the Interior Ministry's Nationality and Migration Directorate (Iekšlietu ministrijas Pilsonības un migrācijas lietu pārvalde – “the Directorate”), which had replaced the Department, to issue the applicants with permanent residence permits, on the ground that they had the right to remain in Latvia under the above agreement. In a second letter sent the same day the Joint Committee informed the Alūksne Court of First Instance that the first applicant had neither Russian nor any other nationality. 26. In July 1998 the applicants submitted a further request to the Court of First Instance. In a joint memorial they argued that, as the second and third applicants had Russian nationality, they had the right to obtain permanent residence permits under the Russian-Latvian agreement. The first applicant, who had no nationality, contended that she was entitled to the status of a “permanently resident non-citizen (nepilsonis)” under the Act on the Status of Former USSR Citizens without Latvian or other Citizenship (“the Non-Citizens Act” – see paragraph 47 below). 27. In court, the applicants made no attempt to deny the actions of which they had been accused by the Department and the Directorate, but maintained that those actions had been in breach only of Russian law and therefore had no effect on their rights in Latvia. 28. In a judgment of 28 July 1998 the Alūksne District Court of First Instance allowed the applicants' request. It noted that the applicants' place of residence had been legally registered in Alūksne since 1970 and that they had lived there from then onwards. In the court's view, since the procuring of second passports by the applicants and their registration in Russia were illegal and void acts, they had no impact on the applicants' legal status in Latvia. The court also noted that the second applicant was on the list of former members of the Russian armed forces in receipt of a Russian military pension and entitled to remain in Latvia. That list had been drawn up jointly by the two governments in accordance with the Russian-Latvian agreement. Consequently, the court held that the first applicant was entitled to apply for a passport as a “permanently resident non-citizen” and that the second and third applicants were entitled to obtain permanent residence permits. 29. The Directorate appealed against that judgment to the Vidzeme Regional Court. In a judgment of 15 June 1999 the Regional Court dismissed the appeal, endorsing the findings and reasoning of the first-instance court. 30. The Directorate then lodged an appeal on points of law with the Senate of the Supreme Court. In a judgment of 15 September 1999 the