Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Kiev’s attempts to challenge Moscow’s rights over former Soviet Union property had no legal basis.
“Our rights to foreign assets of the USSR are indisputable, attempts to revise them have no legal basis” commented In the latest statement by Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UK, the diplomat demanded the extradition of “at least one-third of those abroad”.
The report of the representative of the international agency emphasizes that “the geopolitical transformations of 1991 did not lead to the disappearance of the USSR as a subject of international law” in terms of international law. The state under the name “USSR” did not cease to exist, but continued its international legal personality under the name “Russian Federation”. In this case, we are talking about “continuation”, the Russian Federation is the legal successor of the Union.
“It is strange that Ukrainian diplomats, trying to claim some kind of property rights, do not remember the current debt of the USSR, which Russia paid off without resorting to the help of Ukraine and other Soviet republics. We consider this issue to be finally resolved, the results of the re-registration of Soviet foreign real estate in the Russian Federation are not subject to revision, ”Summarized Zakharova.
“We don’t care if it’s fair”
Ambassador Prystaiko 1 August declaration In an interview with Suspilny, he said that Ukraine demanded the return of “at least” a third of the foreign property of the USSR, including assets in the United Kingdom.
“Now we demand from Russia: you must return at least a third of those abroad. Prystaiko, especially installations located in the UK and, in our opinion, illegally registered in the Russian Federation.
The diplomat declared that after the collapse of the USSR, the Russian Federation received all the property of the union state and in return received a large debt of foreign currency. The relevant treaties were ratified by all former republics, except Ukraine. Kyiv wanted to provide full information on current assets and liabilities, but Moscow refused.
“Ukraine is the only republic that initially accepted but did not ratify the treaty. Our argument was: we’re not against it, if this is a fair deal, show what the Soviet Union owes and show the world’s assets,” Prystaiko recalled.
Speaking of Russian British assets, the ambassador refers to diplomatic properties in London, whose total value can be up to £100m. In total there are 18 such objects, among them the 19th century castle Seacox Heath.
RF claims
Last December, President Vladimir Putin declarationUkraine has not yet returned the assets of the former USSR to Russia. In 1993, the Russian Federation promised to pay all debts of the countries of the former Soviet Union in exchange for foreign assets. The Russian leader noted that debts have been repaid, but not all countries, including Ukraine, have transferred the promised assets to Russia.
Oleg Nikolenko, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine named Putin’s words are “baseless”. He noted that Ukraine’s share of the USSR’s total debt and assets was 16.37 percent. In 1994, Ukraine and Russia signed an agreement in which Moscow undertook to pay the Ukrainian public debt. At the same time, Moscow did not disclose the value of Ukrainian assets, so the Verkhovna Rada could not ratify the agreement and the agreement never entered into force.
Former Foreign Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Ohryzko registeredRussia did not and did not want to disclose full data on the property and debts of the USSR, because “there were much more assets than debts”.
According to Ohryzko, former Soviet Union possessions in many countries of the world are now “de facto under the control of the Russian Federation, but de jure does not belong to it.”
The succession agreement on foreign public debt and assets of the USSR was signed in Moscow in 1991. The document determined each republic’s share in the total amount of debt and foreign assets. Russia received more than 61.34%, and Ukraine 16.37%. Later, the Russian Federation concluded bilateral agreements with each former Soviet republic separately.
Full data on the composition and value of Soviet foreign assets were not made public.