The proposed legislation was submitted to the Russian lower house of the Duma on Wednesday by Yevgeny Fyodorov, a member of the ruling United Russia party. In March 1990, Lithuania became the first republic to announce its intention to restore its independence from the disintegrating USSR, which it controlled for five decades after being occupied by the Soviet army in 1940. The Soviet authorities initially tried to stop the movement, demanding its cancellation and imposing a financial blockade on the country. Mass demonstrations ensued and the Soviet army invaded the capital, Vilnius. The USSR State Council, chaired by its last president, Mikhail Gorbachev, finally approved Lithuania’s independence decree on September 6, 1991, when the new Baltic republic was already recognized by 50 countries. But Fyodorov said the decree was “illegal” because it was passed “by an unconstitutional body” that violated the USSR constitution. He said that according to Article 67.1 of the Russian Constitution, the Russian Federation is the legal successor of the USSR in its territory. Therefore, in his view, this meant that the recognition of Lithuania’s independence by the USSR State Council was subject to annulment. In an explanatory note to the bill, he also said that “there was no referendum on the secession” of Lithuania from the USSR and “no transitional period was established to address all the issues at stake”. “Just another day in the State Duma … United Russia MP Yevgeny Fyodorov has tabled a bill to withdraw recognition of Lithuania’s independence,” Russian Monitoring observer Francis Scar wrote on Twitter. “Fyodorov’s views are extreme even by the standards of Russian lawmakers, so I do not expect him to go anywhere,” Scar added. However, Fyodorov’s draft law comes at a sensitive time for the Baltic states, which are at the forefront of NATO assistance to Ukraine’s war effort against Russia and are worried about the future intentions of President Vladimir Putin. In March, a former senior Russian official, Igor Korotchenko, raised the prospect of the state-run Russia-1 television channel saying Moscow would occupy the Baltic states in response to NATO’s role in Ukraine. Another day in the State Duma … United Russia MP Yevgeny Fyodorov tabled bill to withdraw recognition of Lithuania’s independence (Fyodorov’s views are extreme even by the standards of Russian lawmakers, so I do not expect him to go anywhere) https://t.co/WXjk59dRZv – Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) June 8, 2022 Lithuania does not share a border with Russia, but along with its Baltic neighbors, it has been the backdrop for alliance exercises to prepare for any Russian attack. Last month, Lithuanian citizens raised nearly $ 5 million to buy an advanced military drone for Ukraine. In June 2015, Fyodorov claimed that Russia’s recognition of the Baltic states’ independence was illegal and prompted the Russian prosecutor to investigate the matter. Lithuania’s then foreign minister, Linas Linkevicius, described the Moscow investigation as questioning his country’s legitimacy as an “absurd provocation”. Newsweek contacted the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry for comment. Lithuanians celebrate in Vilnius on March 11, 1990, after the newly elected parliament unanimously voted to change the name of the Baltic Soviet state to “Republic of Lithuania”, becoming the first Soviet republic to declare independence from the EU. On June 8, 2022, United Russia MP Yevgeny Fyodorov tabled a bill claiming that the declaration of independence was illegal. WOJTEK DRUSZCZ / Getty Images
