Russia may impeach the constitutionality of Soviet recognition of Baltic states’ independence. They have already questioned Khrushchev’s transferring Crimea to Ukraine.
Russia’s Attorney General’s Office has opened an investigation into the constitutionality of the State Council of the Soviet Union’s 1991 recognition of the Baltic states’ independence. A source told the news agency Interfax that the inquiry is being conducted in response to an official request by a member of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, meduza.io reports.
“Legally, the decision to recognize the independence of the Baltic states is problematic, insofar as it was made by an unconstitutional state body,” the source told Interfax.
According to the source, the response would be analogous to the Crimean issue, when the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation considered the transfer of Crimea to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954 illegal.
However, this decision has not had any real legal consequences yet:
“The Prosecutor General’s Office only stated the fact, i.e. that the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine in the times of Nikita Khrushchev took place not on constitutional grounds because the relevant decisions were taken by bodies that were not authorized to do that.”
But nowadays there is no such authority that could annul the decision, the source stressed. Moreover, it is unnecessary, because ‘Crimea is part of Russia again and the issue has become a policy point’.
At the same time, the source warns that this time the response of the General Prosecutor’s Office may be more balanced:
“Recognizing whichever historical events ilegal, one can go too far and question the legality of the creation of the Soviet Union and other countries.”
The State Council of the USSR recognized the independence of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia on September 6, 1991, at its first-ever session, a day after it was formed. The State Council’s members included the president of the Soviet Union and the heads of all union republics.
www.belsat.eu/en/, following meduza.io, interfax.ru
