MOSCOW, November 20. /TASS/. The chairman of the Federation Council’s international affairs committee, Konstantin Kosachyov, believes it is impossible to have a meaningful discussion with the Estonian authorities on the state border issue, because the counterparts change their stance too often.
"It is clear that Estonian legislators indulge in their internal political games (the nationalists in parliament maintain the desired level of Russophobia in society) and foreign policy ones (everybody hurries to use the opportunity to put forward one’s own claims against Russia). But this type of behavior is absolutely unworthy of officials with a sense of responsibility. How is it possible to negotiate such important matters as the state border at a time when the partner changes his mind now and then?" Kosachyov said on his Facebook page on Wednesday.
In this way Kosachyov reactor to a statement by the Estonian parliamentary speaker, member of the Conservative People’s Party Henn Pilluaas, who claimed in Facebook that Russia had allegedly annexed about five percent of Estonia’s territory.
"By some twisted logic the politician says that Estonia has no territorial claims against Russia but at the same time argues the territories must be returned," Kosachyov said.
He recalled the 2005 situation, when Russia and Estonia signed two border treaties in Moscow, but the Estonian parliament at the moment of ratification unilaterally edited the preamble of the law on ratification to complement it with a mention of the Tartu peace treaty of 1920, which established different borders between the two countries.
"It looks like Estonia is back to square one again," Kosachyov said.
He pointed out that in 2014 the foreign ministers of Russia and Estonia had concluded a new border treaty to mutually declare the absence of territorial claims.
"Moreover, the bill on the ratification of those agreements underwent the first reading in the Estonian parliament in April 2014. After the elections to the Estonian parliament history came full circle one more time: there have followed more speculations about the Tartu peace treaty, about territorial claims and about the need for another ratification. Now the Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu says that the ratification of the border treaty between his country and Russia has no prospects due to disagreements over the Tartu treaty," Kosachyov said.