The Russian authorities have decided to unilaterally change the borders in the Baltic Sea with Lithuania and Finland. The government's draft decision was published on the portal of legal acts.
There was, because a little later the draft law on changing maritime boundaries disappeared from the website of the Russian government, writes “Radio Liberty”.
As MOSCOW TIMES tells, the document was prepared by the Russian Ministry of Defense. According to it, Russia intends to declare as its internal sea waters part of the water area in the east of the Gulf of Finland, as well as near the cities of Baltiysk (Pillau) and Zelenogradsk (Kranz). To do this, it is planned to change the geographic coordinates of the points that determine the position of the baselines from which the territorial sea waters of Russia are measured, as well as the border and island zone.
The Russian government has decided to adjust the coordinates on the Finnish border in the area of the islands of Jaahi, Sommers, Gogland, Rodsher, Maly Tyuters, Vigrund and at the cape of the northern entrance to the Narva River, according to the annex to the draft decision. On the border with Lithuania, it is planned to view the area of the Curonian Spit, the areas of Cape Taran and the cape south of it, as well as the area of the Vistula Wall.
The current geographical coordinates were determined by a decision of the USSR Council of Ministers in 1985, and the authors of the project claim that they “do not fully correspond to the current geographical situation.” In them, the points were recorded “on small-scale marine navigation charts” based on the work of the mid-twentieth century, and this “does not allow us to determine the external boundary of internal sea waters,” the document says. The Russian Ministry of Defense proposes to partially “invalidate” the “Baltic Sea” section of the above-mentioned decision of the USSR Council of Ministers.
A document on the revision of maritime borders, published on the website of legal acts, which has not yet been officially commented on by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland and Lithuania, was submitted for public discussion almost simultaneously with the start of exercises on tactical nuclear weapons. The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that the exercises began in the Southern combat area and involved Iskander missile systems and aircraft armed with Kinzhal missiles. The purpose of these exercises is to prepare army personnel for the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons, as well as to respond “to provocative statements and threats from some Western officials,” the press service of the Ministry of Defense reported.
But the most interesting thing comes next. Very soon, a draft law on changing maritime boundaries in the Baltic Sea from the Russian Ministry of Defense disappeared from the website of the Russian government. The bill, which attracted the attention of The Moscow Times on Tuesday, May 21, is no longer available on Wednesday, May 22. The web archive contains a copy of the description of the project that the Russian Ministry of Defense proposed for consideration.
Two email addresses are provided as contact information. One, The email address is protected from spambots. Javascript must be enabled in your browser to view the address.suggests that behind the creation of the bill is a military unit with the same number – it is located in St. Petersburg, belongs to the Navy and, among other things, places tenders on the government procurement website for the preparation of navigation maps for the Navy.
Another contact address in the document is The email address is protected from spambots. Javascript must be enabled in your browser to view the address. – belongs to the 373 Center for Collection and Processing of Hydrographic and Hydrometeorological Information of the Navy, which is subordinate to the Navigation and Oceanography Directorate of the Ministry of Defense. This allows us to assert that the bill, removed from the government website after a sharp reaction to it in the Baltic countries, was not a fake, notes edition BB.LV.
After the news appeared, Lithuania called it a provocation. Finland said it was “working out the details.” The head of the Estonian Foreign Ministry suggested that the purpose of this document was to “sow confusion.” And the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Estonian Riigikogu said that this is a new signal that it is time for NATO to “wake up” and begin to adequately respond to Russia’s actions.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Defense Ministry's proposal to update the coordinates of Russia's borders in the Baltic Sea has no political background and invited journalists to contact the defense department for comments. He denied information about the revision of Russia’s maritime borders in the Baltic, noting:
“You see how tensions are escalating, the level of confrontation, especially in the Baltic region. Of course, this requires our respective departments to take appropriate steps to ensure our safety.”
After this, the text of the draft resolution of the Russian government, which was submitted by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and accepted by a number of countries EU as a “hybrid attack”, disappeared from the official website of Russian regulations.
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