Ukraine's MFA calls Putin's assertion that Ukraine allegedly didn't return foreign assets of USSR to Russia a manipulation of facts
The statement made by Russian President Vladimir Putin about Ukraine's alleged failure to fulfill its obligation to transfer the foreign assets of the Soviet Union to the Russian Federation is a manipulation of facts, Oleh Nikolenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, has said.
"The distribution of Soviet property is regulated by the 1991 Agreement on Succession on External Public Debt and Assets of the USSR. According to the agreement, the share of our state in the total debt and assets of the USSR is 16.37%," Nikolenko told Interfax-Ukraine on Monday.
He explained that in 1994 Ukraine and Russia signed the so-called "zero option agreement", according to which the Russian Federation pledged to pay the Ukrainian share in the external state debt of the USSR as of December 1, 1991. For its part, Ukraine was to transfer to Russia its share in the assets of the USSR as of December 1, 1991.
"At the same time, the ignorance of the legal requirements by the Russian side to provide information on the value of Ukrainian assets that were to be transferred made it impossible for the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to ratify the agreement. This document did not come into force either for Ukraine or for the Russian Federation. Therefore, talking about non-fulfillment of any obligations without a proper legal process seem unreasonable," Nikolenko stressed.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that in 1993 Russia undertook to settle all the debts of the former Soviet Union for all the former Soviet republics "with the expectation that these republics will hand overseas assets of the former Soviet Union to us," but Ukraine has not done it yet.