Two Russian deputies have addressed the General Prosecutorassuming the decision of the State Soviet that recognized the independence of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in 1991 was illegal. A thrill goes across the Baltics.
It does not take much to make angry Dalia Grybauskaitė, the combative president of Lithuania. But this time she has some more reason. When she knew that Yevgeny Fyodorov and Anton Romanov, two deputies of Putin’s United Russiaparty, have addressed the General Prosecutor of Russia to havethe independence of the Baltic countries declared unlawful, she flew into a rage. How to blame her? “Our independence was gained through the blood and sacrifice of the Lithuanian people. No one has the right to threaten it. Only we will decide our fate.”
The thesis of the two members of the Duma is not legally inconsistent with the claim of Grybauskaitė. According to them, the act granting independence to the Baltic is “legally invalid because it was adopted by an unconstitutional body”. Fyodorov and Romanov refer to the fact that in 1991, after almost a year that the Baltic States, first of all Lithuania, had declared independence from the Soviet Union, the status quo was recognized by the State Council of the USSR,a body that was not entitled to do it. Also called StateSoviet, it was a body formed in the aftermath of the attempted coup of 1991 to replace the Supreme Soviet, and that had notthe power to remove the moorings of a Soviet republic. In addition, the constitution in force provided for such cases a referendum that was never held.
Tanks in Vilnius
The move of the two deputies follows the similar a few weeks ago in which the General Prosecutor of Russia, declared the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine under Khrushchevillegal and effectively legitimized the annexation of the peninsula on the Black Sea. Seems obvious that the Baltics feel threatened.
Even the conciliatory words of a source inside the prosecutor’s office quoted by Interfax are more worrying. “The decision of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office is juridically harmful, because it was adopted by an unconstitutional body. It did not carry any legal consequences.The Office of the Prosecutor General of Russia merely stated that the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine under Nikita Khrushchev was unconstitutional, because the decision was made by state bodies that were not authorized to do so.” Seeing where he is now Crimea, there is little to keep calm.
“It is a provocation to say the least,” the Foreign Minister of Lithuania, LinasLinkevičius, said.”It’s in fact legally, morally and politically absurd. Unfortunately, it’s not the first action of such nature recently.”
Lithuania gained its independence with a revolution that today few remember. The streets of Vilnius were occupied by Russian tanks for eight long months, after several dozen protesters had died trying to defend the parliament and the television tower. Those events are fresh in the memory of many Lithuanians, and it is understandable that many look to Russia with suspicion and fear.
It is clear that, whatever the decision of the General Prosecutor, no one will dream of sending back the tanks in Vilnius. The episode, however, is a further symptom of revanchism taking place in Russia, as well as perfectly in line with the famous thought of Putin, that the fall of the USSR was the greatest tragedy of the twentieth century.
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Two Russian deputies have addressed the General Prosecutorassuming the decision of the State Soviet that recognized the independence of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in 1991 was illegal. A thrill goes across the Baltics.
