Statements from President of the Riigikogu (unicameral parliament of Estonia) Henn Polluaas about an alleged validity of the 1920 Tartu Peace Treaty stall the ratification of the Russian-Estonian border treaty and add tensions to relations of the two countries, the head of the Russian State Duma’s Committee for International Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, told TASS.
“Polluaas’s statements are probably aimed at the domestic audience with an aim to attract electorate. However, such statements are further delaying prospects for the ratification of the Russian-Estonian border treaty of 2014 and create additional tensions in bilateral and inter-parliamentary cooperation,” said Leonid Slutsky.
Slutsky reiterated that the president of the Estonian parliament has been saying for a second year that the Tartu Peace Treaty has not lost its validity.
“Thus, Henn Polluaas is going down this road again, getting the situation 16 years back, when after almost 11 years of negotiations the sides managed to agree on the border line and sign a border treaty. However, Estonia’s mentioning the Tarty Peace Treaty in its preamble prompted Russia back then to recall its signature, and new consultations began only in 2012, ending in 2014 by the signing of a new agreement on the state border,” Slutsky said.
The document is still considered by the two parliaments, he reiterated.
The Treaty of Tartu was signed by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (part of the Soviet Union) and Estonia on February 2, 1920. Its conditions stipulated that Ivangorod and a part of the Pechory District belonged to Estonia. After Estonia joined the Soviet Union in 1940, these territories were retroceded to Russia.
Forsided, 4.1.2021
Source: TASS