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Kremlin dismisses Estonia’s territorial claims against Russia as unacceptable

Earlier, Estonian parliamentary speaker voiced a statement that Russia must return the territories mentioned in the 1920 Tartu Peace Treaty to Estonia

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov Mikhail Metzel/TASS

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov

© Mikhail Metzel/TASS

MOSCOW, November 20. /TASS/. The Kremlin regards Estonia’s territorial claims against Russia as unacceptable, Russian presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov told the media on Wednesday.

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"We believe that [this demand] is unacceptable and we cannot agree with it," Peskov said in the wake of the Estonian parliamentary speaker’s statement that Russia must return the territories mentioned in the 1920 Tartu Peace Treaty to Estonia.

Estonia’s Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu stated on Tuesday that the ratification of the treaty on the border between his country and Russia at the moment had no prospects due to disagreements over the Tartu Peace Treaty. Earlier, Estonia’s Interior Minister, leader of the Conservative People’s Party Mart Helme claimed that Russia had not returned 5.2% of the original territory to Estonia yet. He added that Estonia would wait for a settlement of the dispute in accordance with international law.

As a Russian diplomatic source told TASS earlier, Helme was most probably referring to Ivangorod and part of the Pechora district. Under the Tarty Peace Treaty concluded between Russia and Estonia on February 2, 1920 those territories had belonged to Estonia. They were incorporated by Russia after Estonia joined the Soviet Union. The Russian Foreign Ministry has stressed more than once that the Tartu Peace Treaty lost force the moment Estonia joined the Soviet Union.

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