WITH a view to possible action against former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, a group of MPs representing both majority and opposition parties have asked Russia’s Prosecutor General to probe the events leading to the break-up of the Soviet Union.
In a letter, signed by two MPs from United Russia, two Communists and one representative of populist nationalist party LDPR, the parliamentarians claim that at the March 1991 referendum, the majority of Soviet citizens voted that their country should remain united.
Therefore, the actions of several top officials that led to the break-up of the USSR were unlawful.
They also noted that in November 1991, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the USSR commenced a criminal case against President Gorbachev, but closed it the next day under pressure from higher courts.
According to the authors of the letter (and the prosecutors in 1991), Gorbachev is personally to blame for the creation of the State Council of the USSR. This new body was not described in the Soviet Constitution and yet took the responsibility to decide on the secession of the three Baltic republics.
The MPs also noted that such crimes have no statute of limitation, meaning that Gorbachev himself does not presently enjoy any sort of immunity from legal action. One of the sponsors of the initiative, Evgeny Fyodorov, in comments with the daily newspaper Izvestia, claimed that the thorough investigation into the 1991 events would allow for a ‘correct historical and political picture’.
Fyodorov believes its veritable conclusions would give an impetus for the ‘national liberation movements’ in former Soviet republics.
MP Mikhail Degtyaryov said that it was extremely important to hold an investigation and restore a full picture of the 1991 events as these are the roots of all events in post-Soviet areas, including the current violent crisis in Ukraine.
‘People in Kiev are dying and will keep on dying because of the people in the Kremlin who made a decision to break up the country a long time ago,’ he told Izvestia. Gorbachev has dismissed the accusations against him as attention-seeking and ‘complete foolishness’.
The ex-Soviet President told Interfax: ‘These calls only reflect the urge for self-promotion experienced by certain MPs. They like being named and talked about, but their appeal has not been worked through and is completely unfounded from the historical point of view.’
Gorbachev also noted that he must still have enemies in Russia who try to blacken his name through various campaigns. ‘I must be a hindrance for someone,’ he said. ‘The fact that over the last 20 days there were several reports about my death, supports this allegation. I do not react to such statements, I keep tending to my business and my health,’ the veteran Russian politician added.
• A leftist Russian MP has proposed the Foreign Ministry freeze all territorial talks with Japan until it recognises the results of Crimea’s referendum on joining Russia.
Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida expressed regret over Crimea’s secession from Ukraine and called upon Russian leaders to withdraw acceptance of the republic’s sovereignty. He also announced that Japan was introducing sanctions against Russia, such as freezing talks on softening the visa regime, on investment, on space exploration, and on an agreement to prevent dangerous military activities.
But Oleg Mikheyev of the Fair Russia parliamentary faction says that Japan’s position over events in Ukraine and Crimea are ‘illogical’. In his letter to Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, Mikheyev blasted the Japanese step as ‘an attempt of undisguised pressure over issues that have no relation to the situation in Ukraine and to the situation with the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine and Crimea.
‘When Crimean residents chose to join the Russian Federation, the United States and the European Union replied with sanctions,’ Izvestia quoted Mikheyev as saying. The European Union did so because Ukraine intended to sign an association agreement with it, and the United States did so because it is a leading member of NATO.
‘However, Japan’s decision to impose sanctions in reply to Crimea’s accession seems illogical to me, to put it mildly. If Japan is throwing a spanner in the works of our diplomacy in Ukraine and at the same time hopes to continue with a diplomatic settlement of the Kuril Islands issue, this is their harsh mistake,’ the politician emphasised in his letter.
Russia and Japan are in dispute over four of the southernmost islands in the Kuril Archipelago that fell under Soviet control after WW2. The territorial dispute prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty and relations are still regulated under the armistice.
However, both nations were showing goodwill in recent years, with Japan offering investment possibilities and a lax visa regime to the residents of the islands. In turn, Russia suggested protection for investors and special favourable conditions for Japanese businesses.
In November 2013, Russia and Japan held their first joint conference between defence and foreign ministers. The officials agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation, especially in the field of maritime security, and drafted plans for joint naval exercises to combat terrorism and piracy.
• A NATO commander says increased tensions near the border between Ukraine and Russia may soon see US troops deployed to Europe. The comments were made on Wednesday by the US Air Force’s Philip Breedlove, a four-star general who has since last year served as the supreme allied commander of NATO’s European operations.
Representatives from the 28 countries involved in the multinational alliance have reportedly asked Breedlove to have a plan ready by early next week to reassure partners in the region ‘that other alliance countries have their back’.
Breedlove said that he has every intention of unveiling his proposal ahead of next Tuesday’s deadline, and when asked for clarification about the potential for US military involvement, Breedlove reportedly reiterated: ‘I would not write off contributions from any nation.’ The general’s remarks come amid imperialist leaders’ concerns over the further escalation in recent days of pro-Russian feeling in the east of Ukraine.
Breedlove is quoted as saying last week that Russia had not only amassed roughly 40,000 troops near the federation’s border with eastern Ukraine, but also has the resources to invade and annex that portion of the country as well in the span of just three to five days.
Then over the weekend, pro-Russian protesters seized government buildings in the Ukrainian cities of Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkov, rekindling concerns of a potential split in the country’s mainland. Also on Wednesday this week, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that both the Ukraine and US have ‘no reason for concern’ about the heightened presence of forces in the region.
‘Russia has repeatedly stated that it does not conduct unusual or unplanned activities which are militarily significant on its territory near the border with Ukraine,’ insisted the ministry. Meanwhile, Breedlove suggested after a NATO conference in Paris on Wednesday that the Ukraine situation remains as serious as ever.
‘What we see there is a force of about 40,000,’ he said. I would characterise it as a combined arms army. In other words, this is an army that has all of the provisioning and enabling that it needs to accomplish military objectives if given them.’
Also speaking on Wednesday, US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said: ‘We’re always vigilant and we’re always looking at the options that we need to take.’
The NATO member-states of Romania, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary all share international boundary lines with Ukraine, though they are at a minimum 500 miles away from it’s border with Russia where tensions continue to worsen.
