Russia proposes unilateral Baltic border changes, sparking tensions
The Moscow Times reports that the Russian authorities want to unilaterally change the country's maritime borders with Lithuania and Finland in the Baltic Sea, citing a draft resolution by the Russian government.
According to the document the Ministry of Defense prepared, Russia intends to recognize part of the water area in the eastern Gulf of Finland and near Baltiysk and Zelenogradsk in the Kaliningrad region as internal waters.
Russians want to revise Baltic borders
To this end, the geographic coordinates of the points defining the baseline locations from which the width of the Russian Federation's territorial sea is measured will be changed.
On the border with Finland, the Russian government intends to correct the coordinates in the area of the Jähi, Sommers, Holland, Rodsher, Maly Tyuters, and Vigrund islands, as well as near the northern cape of the Narva River entrance.
The changes will cover the area of the Curonian Spit in the Gulf of Gdańsk, Cape Taran, and the Baltic Spit on the border with Lithuania.
Russians want to change Baltic borders
The current geographic coordinates established by the Council of Ministers of the USSR in 1985 "do not fully correspond to the current geographic situation," claim the project's authors. The points were recorded "using small-scale marine navigation charts," based on work from the mid-20th century, which "does not allow for the definition of the outer boundary of the internal waters area," - the document states.
As a result of the changes in the southern part of the Russian islands in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland, as well as in the area of Baltiysk and Zelenogradsk, a previously non-existent system of straight baselines will be created, forming the appropriate water areas that are to be "used as internal waters of the Russian Federation." "The crossing of the state border of the Russian Federation at sea will change due to the change in the location of the external boundary of the territorial sea," explains the project's authors.
The 40-year-old resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR regulating the borders in the Baltic Sea, the Ministry of Defense proposes to partially "deem as outdated."
Finland and Lithuania's Ministries of Foreign Affairs have not officially commented on the border revision document.
