On June 8, the Russian Duma floated a bill saying the USSR’s recognition of Lithuania’s sovereignty on September 7,1991 was null and void because it went against the Soviet constitution.  Fyodorov, a member of the ruling United Russia party,

said that under article 67.1 of the Russian constitution, the Russian Federation is the legal successor of the USSR on its territory. Therefore, in his view, this meant that the recognition of Lithuania's independence taken by the USSR State Council

was subject to cancellation. In an explanatory note on the bill, Fyodorov also said that "there was no referendum on secession" of Lithuania from the USSR and "no transitional period was established for consideration of all contentious issues."

The State Council of the USSR, chaired by its last president, Mikhail Gorbachev, eventually adopted Lithuania's independence decree on September 6, 1991, by which time the Baltic republic's new status had already been recognized by 50 countries.

"We are the successors of the USSR. We person the close to annul the decisions of the Soviet Union which are indispensable for America present and now," Yevgeny Fyodorov, the Russian MP who tabled the bill, told Russian regular Komsomolskaya

pravda astatine the time. "Just another day in the State Duma... United Russia MP Yevgeny Fyodorov has tabled a bill to revoke recognition of Lithuania's independence," tweeted Russia watcher Francis Scarr from BBC Monitoring.

“De-recognition would besides springiness Lithuania ineligible grounds for exiting NATO, Fyodorov added.

And for their part, Lithuanian defense curate Arvydas Anušauskas and Lithuanian MP Matas Maldeikis mocked Fyodorov's initiative.

Kyiv City Council had already revoked Moscow's instauration successful 1147 anyway, Anušauskas joked connected Twitter. If Russia de-recognized Lithuania, Vilnius would revoke the 1634 Treaty of Polyanovka and instrumentality

backmost lands from Russia, Maldeikis said.

The main extremity of the Russian inaugural was a propaganda onslaught to "publicly belittle" Lithuania by questioning it’s close to exist, Valentinas Beržiūnas, a prof astatine the Vilnius University Institute of International

Relations and Political Science, besides said.

For Grigory Amnuel, a Russian exile successful Poland who worked for 12 years successful the Duma, Fyodorov, the Russian MP, is simply a known provocateur.

Fyodorov expects the Duma to ballot connected his connection successful the autumn session.

But if it fell by the wayside, the Kremlin could easy lavation its hands of it, adjacent though helium hails from Russia's president Vladimir Putin's United Russia party.”

“Lithuania, a staunch protagonist of Ukraine, has already been taking occurrence from Russian accusation attacks and Fyodorov has said that if Estonia and Latvia "do not reconstruct their bully relations" with Russia,

past it ought to de-recognize them too.”

A spokesperson for the Lithuanian foreign ministry told Newsweek, "One should not be too surprised at such absurd statements," adding, "let's not make a mountain out of a molehill."

"Nevertheless, we have to understand the Russian regime with which the world is dealing. This is the way the regime functions, behaves, talks, tries to scare us and wages its war," the spokesperson said in a statement.

A week ago Newsweek reported about the proposed legislation.

Lithuania shares a border with Russia's enclave of Kaliningrad and along with its Baltic neighbors, has been the scene of alliance drills to prepare for any Russian aggression. Last month, Lithuanian citizens raised nearly

$5 million to purchase an advanced military drone for Ukraine.

To read the entire article see: https://eunews.bksfe.com/russia-s-law-to-uncreate-lithuania-laugh-or-cry-5537.html; and

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-moscow-lithuania-independence-soviet-union-yevgeny-fyodorov-1714138

Note: The English is not “great” but I copied what was included in EU News.

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee