New Push in Duma to Denounce 1990 Shevardnadze-Baker Agreement on Bering Straits

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Feb. 26 – Ever since it was signed but not ratified, the 1990 agreement between Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze and US Secretary of State James Baker changing the delimitation of the waters in the Bering Straits has been controversial in Russia, with many Russians seeing its provisions as an unjustified concession to the United States.

            There have been repeated calls to denounce it officially, not only because of the deterioration of relations between Moscow and Washington since the start of Putin’s war in Ukraine but also because the Russian government recently denounced an agreement between Moscow and London on fishing rights off the Kola Peninsula.

            Now, some Duma deputies and senators are again pressing Moscow to denounce the accord, although some are suggesting that this is an unnecessary step given that it was never ratified and that Moscow can simply act as if the agreement was never signed at all (vz.ru/world/2024/2/26/1254802.html).

            But other Russian politicians are expressing concern that in response to any such Russian actions, the US would retaliate in some way and thus leave Moscow and its fisherman in a potentially even worse situation than the 1990 accord which according to earlier Russian assessments has cost Russia several billion US dollars in losses.