MOSCOW, October 1 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev gave an instruction to present to Russian President Vladimir Putin proposals to sign a Russian-Estonian treaty on the state border between the countries and the bilateral agreement on delimitation of sea areas in the Narva Bay and the Gulf of Finland, the Russian government reported at its official website.
Both documents were signed on May 18, 2005. However, the Russian Cabinet recalled that “while performing the ratification procedures Estonia has unilaterally introduced in the country’s specific law the references to the invalid Tartu Peace Treaty of 1920 between Estonia and the Soviet Russia that gave an opportunity to the country to make territorial claims. In this situation Russia has revoked the country’s signatures from under the treaties.”
“In the process of finalizing the draft treaties with Estonia the policy was pursued for negotiating the wordings, which rule out any possible territorial claims to Russia and which hamper political speculations over the so-called ‘occupation’ of Estonia by the former Soviet Union. The current readings of the preambles of the draft agreements and Article 9 of the Russian-Estonian state border treaty meet these demands,” the government noted.
The Russian government hopes that “the conclusion of the treaties will bring the Russian-Estonian state border in compliance with the real local situation, international legal establishment of the border will put up a legal obstacle for Estonia’s further territorial claims to the Russian Federation.”