The Russian Foreign Ministry called populist demands of the Ambassador of Ukraine to return the property of the USSR

Russia’s rights to foreign assets of the USSR are indisputable, attempts to revise them have no legal basis, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

Earlier, Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK Vadim Prystaiko said that Russia should return part of the property of the USSR received during the collapse of the country. The diplomat admitted that Russia assumed all the debts of the USSR in exchange for the fact that all of its foreign property would go to Russia. But he pointed out that Ukraine has not ratified the relevant documents.

“The statement of the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK Vadym Prystaiko is populist and has no basis. Our rights to the foreign assets of the USSR are indisputable, attempts to revise them have no legal grounds,” the diplomat noted (quoted from TASS).

Zakharova recalled that Russia is the successor state of the USSR, this status is recognized by the international community, and also confirmed by the International Court of Justice.

The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that Russia, as a successor to the right, assumed obligations to pay the external state debt of the USSR. “Based on this status, Russia exercises ownership rights to foreign property of the USSR. It is strange that Ukrainian diplomats, trying to claim some kind of property rights, do not remember the existing debt of the USSR, which Russia paid without resorting to the help of Ukraine and other Soviet republics,” Zakharova said.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin in the film “Russia. Recent history” said that Ukraine is one of the countries that did not transfer to Russia the property remaining from the USSR, despite the payment by Moscow of all external debts of the Union. As the president explained, in the 1990s. Russia could not solve socio-economic issues without financial support from outside. In 1993, the country took upon itself the obligation to pay off debts for all former Soviet republics, with the expectation that these republics would transfer foreign assets to Russia.

In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, this statement called “manipulation of facts”. The department pointed out that the distribution of property of the USSR is regulated by the Treaty of Succession in Respect of External Public Debt and Assets of the USSR of 1991. It follows from the document that the share of Ukraine in the total debt and assets of the USSR is 16.37%.