Moscow Surprised by Kiev Statements on Border Treaty

MOSCOW, Russia -- The Russian Foreign Ministry is perplexed with Ukraine’s claims of an allegedly illegal and non-constructive position and double standards in connection with the signing of the Russian-Estonian border treaty.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry made a statement on results of the consultations on the delimitation of waters in the Azov and Black Seas and the legal status of the Kerch Strait.


The Kerch Strait
“It is against diplomatic practices to comment on current work of experts, the more so to give inappropriate assessments,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. Yet Kiev “again demands the recognition of the Soviet administrative border between the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the Kerch Strait and its use in the current delimitation of the border between Russia and Ukraine,” the ministry said. Kiev claims that this principle was used in the delimitation of sea borders between Russia and Estonia.

“This comparison is a deliberate distortion of facts,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “True, the border between Russia and Estonia is delimitated by the administrative border between the former Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the former Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic but that is the land border,” the ministry said.

“As for the division of waters in the Gulfs of Narva and Finland, the state border between Russia and Estonia goes along the medium line, which meets the international sea law. There were no sea borders [between republics] in the Soviet times,” the ministry said.

Russia “is holding negotiations with Ukraine on the basis of the international law, including the bilateral treaty on cooperation in the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait of December 23, 2003,” the ministry said. “This document does not envisage the state border in the Kerch Strait but says that the settlement of water issues shall be done by consent of the sides. The publicly announced position of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry hampers the achievement of this settlement,” the ministry said.

Source: ITAR-Tass