Russia Examines 1991 Recognition of Baltic Independence

The Russian chief prosecutor's office is to examine whether the Soviet Union acted legally when it recognised the Baltic states' independence in 1991.

The investigation was described as an "absurd provocation" by Lithuania's Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were occupied by Soviet communist forces in 1940. The USSR broke up in 1991.

Last week Russia's chief prosecutor declared illegal the transfer of Crimea from Russia to Ukraine in 1954.
At the time Russia and Ukraine were republics of the USSR, under communist leader Nikita Khrushchev.

Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014 was condemned internationally. Ethnic Russians there voted to rejoin Russia, in a highly controversial referendum.

Russia Examines 1991 Recognition of Baltic Independence

Well, this is interesting....

What happens if the Russian prosecutor "determines" that the USSR acted "illegally" with regards to the Baltic states independence?

It all seems a bit childish really and at the end of the day, it matters not if the USSR acted "legally" as they have now been independent for 26 years, are full EU/NATO members and are recognised around the world as independent states.

uh oh. this appears to be accurate folks. i can hear "uncle sam" throwing a temper tantrum all the way out here. only 2 very immature, "semi-soverign", low-legitimacy, in need of repair governments can take a proxy war to these heights. NO ONE is going to benefit from where this is leading.

a reply to: stumason

Those moves from Russia do not surprise me at all . After all the Soviet union originally occupied those areas under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany . A dictator made a deal with another dictator now the current dictator wants his piece.



Adolf Hitler made the exact same moves in the 30s .

The Baltics are just paranoid. Russia has no designs on annexing them. Just ignore the 100,000+ men exercises on your border. Just ignore the Kremlin trying to find ways that would justify invasion. What!? They're requesting extra support from NATO? Why are the Baltics being so aggressive?

a reply to: Xcalibur254

Quite...

You can certainly see why the Baltic states are nervous and considering they have significant Russian populations there as a hangover of the Soviet occupation (much like Ukraine) you can foresee the potential for a flash point with some instigation of local radicals into occupying buildings which gives the pretext for Russian involvement to "protect ethnic Russians"...

a reply to: stumason

Reading your post I was reminded of this ...."Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko requests the supreme court of Ukraine to declare that his predecessor, Viktor Yanukovych, was overthrown by an illegal operation; in other words, that the post-Yanukovych government, including Poroshenko’s own Presidency, came into power from a coup, not from something democratic, not from any authentic constitutional process at all.

In a remarkable document, which is not posted at the English version of the website of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, but which is widely reported outside the United States, including Russia, Poroshenko, in Ukrainian (not in English), has petitioned the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (as it is being widely quoted in English):

“I ask the court to acknowledge that the law ‘on the removal of the presidential title from Viktor Yanukovych’ as unconstitutional.” www.globalresearch.ca... could be a tit for tat going on :>)

Putin is like the kid in school that cries 'funzies' to get his marbles back after losing them all.

There are probably a whole lot of things the Soviet Union did that were illegal, including carving up Poland in a pact with Hitler. Putin probably wants his half of that pie back too.

a reply to: the2ofusr1

I've tried to find alternate sources for that, but it seems the only sites carrying the story are all Russian, which makes me think we might need to take that with a pinch of salt..

The Russians just had their courts declare that they gave Crimea illegally to Ukraine as well. You know so that this entire occupation and annexation of Crimea never happened because they owned it all along. This is how Putin thinks. Nobody recognized our annexation of Crimea? Well we will just revise history so we never gave it away in the first place so the annexation never happened. And some how he thinks the rest of he world will be like, oh yes of course, now we recognized you own Crimea...

Now they will do the same with the Baltic states. To bad for Putin they are in both the EU and NATO. Russia is becoming North Korea more and more each day stepping further and further into a fantasy land that only they live in.

Yeah, this one got my attention too. It was a feature on the CNN ticker this afternoon, barely mentioned. But it certainly raised my interest.

I wonder if Putin is looking towards an invasion of the Baltic States and will be using this as an excuse or justification for the invasion.

If I lived there, I'd be taking a nice long vacation.

originally posted by: stumason
a reply to: the2ofusr1

I've tried to find alternate sources for that, but it seems the only sites carrying the story are all Russian, which makes me think we might need to take that with a pinch of salt..

It was on CNN ticker this afternoon, barely mentioned but was flashed briefly a few times. Certainly got me interested as to why they would want to do this unless they're gearing up to try and legally justify an invasion.

a reply to: stumason
I'm a fan of Putin, but this screams of smokescreen to me. Make the US and others think you are thinking about doing something while something else hapens in the background.

a reply to: stumason

My source is from Canada while your BBC source is from Russia .

A source at the prosecutor's office, quoted by Russia's Interfax news agency, said the investigation into the Baltic states' independence followed a request from two parliamentary deputies.

Are you saying that only sources of information from outside Russia are truthful or reliable ?

This would be fun to see Russia determine it was illegal. Then what? If Russia decided to take them back militarily they would have to do it one Baltic state at a time, and by the time the first state was invaded I think the rest would have a clue what was going on and Russia would have a bad day.

With this logic, soon Kremlin will declare the breakup of USSR as illegal............which it certainly was. Drunk Yeltsin decided to walk out of the union and the "low self esteemed" Red Army fresh from spanking received in Afghanistan, with its "glorious and grand" Generals, just stood watching like meek teenage girls.

However, two decades later, it would be much impractical to send troops and tanks to the various republic capitals and raise the Russian flag using coercive measures. Better would be if a democratic nationwide referendums are held in various former republics and will and sentiments of people are accepted as the final word. There are many basket case economies and societies in chaos among the former republics which will be more than happy to rejoin Russia and restart the welfare handouts from Moscow.

Regarding Baltics, the train has left the station. Them being in NATO would invite WW3 which no one wants. Also, Baltics are openly anti-Russia and holding any common vote would be impractical to begin with.

originally posted by: victor7
Better would be if a democratic nationwide referendums are held in various former republics and will and sentiments of people are accepted as the final word. There are many basket case economies and societies in chaos among the former republics which will be more than happy to rejoin Russia and restart the welfare handouts from Moscow.

I agree with everything but this. Borders are set and if Russia is worried about the ethnic Russians in those states they can foot the bill to move them all to Russia. What if the US were to start going into poor and impoverished countries saying hold a referendum if you would like to become a US state. Many would jump at that opportunity, but would be an insanely bad idea.

a reply to: stumason

I don't expect the eunuchs in Washington to do anything should the Russians decided to invade the Baltics again.

The Baltics need a new strategy to protect their sovereignty. Perhaps they need to enter into a legal confederation with Finland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Romania, and Bulgaria where each retains national sovereignty over internal policies but that each national armed forces would merge to form a new 'super army' etc., and the nations would work together as a self-defence block within the European Parliament and the EU.

There was a time at the fall of the Soviet Union when a few Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish forward thinking folk imagined the need for a regional military structure apart from NATO in order to deal with Russia once it became resurgent or belligerent. The problem with NATO is that very few expect the USA, the UK, France, etc. will be there for them should the Russians try to seize territory or invade.

It might be a very good development for Europe if a comprehensive military structure apart from NATO would see a unification of foreign policy and armed forces from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Romania, and Bulgaria. I think the Russians would think twice before trying to engage such a military force to seize territory or sovereign nations.

a reply to: Kapriti

An invasion of a NATO state would definitely trigger a NATO response. Russia knows this. That would go one of 2 ways, Russia backs down, or WW3.

a reply to: Vector99

Borders are set, fine, and no one is forcing these republics and their peoples to hold a vote. Many republics like Belarus, Armenia, Khazakstan have desired to rejoin or make a Union with Russia many times before. Even Serbia wanted to join Russia.

a reply to: victor7

any actions that would lead to any referendums would be covert ops by the said country they wish to join. That statement goes for US and Russia. I prefer neither get any bigger than they already are personally.