Update
In Lithuania and Finland
Russia wants to “expand” territorial waters in the Baltic Sea
22.05.2024, 09:35
The Kremlin also apparently wants more sea. The Ministry of Defense in Moscow is proposing that the border regulations in the Baltic Sea be partially “recognized as ineffective.” The coordinates are apparently to be “adjusted” and the Russian water area expanded. Finland is alarmed.
Russia wants to expand its territorial waters in the Baltic Sea near the state borders with Lithuania and Finland. This is based on a government bill. It is therefore about the maritime borders around Russian islands in the east of the Gulf of Finland and the area around the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
As the “Moscow Times” Moscow intends to declare part of the water area in the east of the Gulf of Finland and near the cities of Baltiysk and Zelenogradsk in the Kaliningrad region as its internal waters. On the border with Finland, the Russian government intends to “adjust” the coordinates in the area of the islands of Jahi, Sommers, Holland, Rodzher, Maly Tyuters, Vigrund, as well as near the northern entrance cape of the Narva River. On the border with Lithuania, the area of the Curonian Spit, the areas of Cape Taran, and the cape south of Cape Taran and the Baltic Spit will be checked.
As a result of the changes, “on the southern part of the Russian islands, in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland, as well as in the Baltiysk and Zelenogradsk regions, a system of straight baselines will be established, which did not previously exist and allows the corresponding water areas to be used as internal maritime waters of the Russian Federation “, the newspaper quotes from the decree of the Ministry of Defense. “The course of the state border of the Russian Federation at sea will change due to the change in the position of the external border of the territorial sea.”
The current geographical coordinates, established by a 1985 decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, “do not fully correspond to the current geographical realities,” the decree continues. The points were established “on the basis of small nautical charts,” which in turn were based on works from the mid-20th century, which “does not allow determining the external border of the internal maritime waters” of the Russian Federation. According to the report, the Ministry of Defense proposes to partially “recognize as invalid” the 40-year-old resolution of the USSR Council of Ministers regulating the borders in the Baltic Sea.
The reasons for the plans are unclear, as is whether there have already been discussions with other Baltic Sea neighbors. Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen calls on Russia to abide by United Nations conventions and international maritime law. Finland is a member of NATO.
Urgent warning from Sweden
The Commander-in-Chief of the Swedish Armed Forces, Micael Biden, just warned about Russia’s ambitions for power in the Baltic Sea. “I am sure that Russian President Vladimir Putin has even cast both eyes on Gotland. Putin’s goal is to gain control of the Baltic Sea,” the army chief told the newspapers of the editorial network Germany (RND).
“If Russia takes control and seals off the Baltic Sea, it would have an enormous impact on our lives – in Sweden and all other Baltic Sea states. We cannot allow that,” said Biden. “The Baltic Sea must not become Putin’s playground where he terrifies NATO members.”