Paul Goble
Staunton, June 6 – Reflecting Moscow’s anger at Lithuania’s opposition to Russian aggression in Ukraine, Yevgeny Fyodorov, a United Russia Duma deputy, has called on the Russian parliament to annul the decision of the State Council of the USSR in September 1991 recognizing the independence of Lithuania.
Fyodorov says that the decision was taken by an institution not created or recognized by the Soviet constitution and that Lithuania itself failed to hold a referendum on independence or allow for a lengthy transition period as Soviet legislation in force at that time required (kp.ru/daily/27403/4599772/).
When asked why his proposed legislation focused only on Lithuania and not on Estonia and Latvia as well, the Duma deputy said that “for us,” Lithuania is “a more important territory than the others as it is the pathway to Kaliningrad Oblast. Moreover, Vilnius consistently conducts a more aggressive and anti-Russian policy” than do the others.
Fyodorov’s proposal is gaining support in the Duma. Among those backing his ideas or even expanding on them is Mikhail Delyagin, the deputy chairman of the Duma Commission on Investing Interference by Foreign States in Russian Internal Affairs (forum-msk.org/material/news/17916419.html).
He says that Moscow should now revisit what he calls the illegal transfer to Lithuania of the Memel land that had been part of Germany’s East Prussia but was awarded to Russia at the end of World War II. According to Delyagin, the status of Memel land, now Klaipeda, needs to be reviewed.
Delyagin’s comment may be even more important than Fyodorov’s absurd proposal as it appears to signal that some in Moscow are now thinking about how they would subdivide Lithuania in the event of a new conflict there and how they would give such an imperial rearrangement the gloss of legality.
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