The Hindu : Russian MPs challenge pact with U.S.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 06, 2002

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International

Russian MPs challenge pact with U.S.

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW SEPT. 5. Russian lawmakers vowed to take back from the United States a disputed part of a resource-rich sea that the erstwhile Soviet Union ceded to America 12 years ago. The Federation Council, the Upper House of the Russian Parliament, decided to rewrite the 1990 Soviet-American agreement on the delimitation of their overlapping 320 km economic zones in the northern Bering and Chutotka Seas.

Under the agreement the U. S. received 70 per cent of the Bering Sea. The Russian Parliament has refused to approve the agreement. However, the U. S., which promptly ratified the pact, detains Russian ships fishing in the disputed area. Russian legislators described the agreement as grossly unfair to Russia. In June, the State Duma, the Lower House of Parliament, passed a nonbinding resolution calling the agreement "unbalanced.'' ``Every year the Russian fishing industry loses over $200 millions because of this border agreement,'' said Senator Alexander Nazarov, co-ordinator of an Upper House working group set up to draft a new agreement that "should protect the national interests of both Russia and the U. S.''

Russian legislators will go to the U. S. next month to propose joint economic use of the disputed area. If the U. S. Congress refuses to redraw the border, Russia will take the case to court to annul the signature of the then Soviet Foreign Minister, Eduard Shevardnadze , Mr. Nazarov said. Mr. Shevardnadze, who is now President of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, has been accused of betraying Russia's national interests by signing the controversial border accord. The move to challenge the pact comes amid growing tensions between Russia and Georgia.

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