Putin submits proposals on denouncing some Russia-Ukraine agreements on Black Sea Fleet

MOSCOW, March 28. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has submitted a proposal to the State Duma on terminating the legal effect of a number of Russian-Ukrainian agreements on the parameters of division of the Black Sea Fleet that were signed on May 28, 1997, as well as on the status and conditions of the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s deployment on the territory of Ukraine, on reciprocal payments in connection with the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s deployment in Ukraine, and on the stationing of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine (the latter agreement signed April 21, 2010).

A report on the Russian President’s legislative move was uploaded at the Kremlin’s official website.

Putin also issued a resolution appointing Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov his official representatives in both chambers of the Federal Assembly in the process of scrutiny of the proposals on cancelling the legal effect of the aforementioned agreements.

Russian President Vladimir Putin today submitted to the State Duma proposals on denouncing Russia's agreement on the division of the Black Sea Fleet with Ukraine. The agreement can be canceled in the future because now Russia is the sole sovereign in Crimea - which means there is no longer any obligation incumbent upon Russia to comply with Ukrainian sovereignty and laws and to continue to make rent payment for use of Sevastopol naval base in what is now the federal city of Russia and secondly, because the Ukrainian part of the Black Sea Fleet no longer exists.

As uploaded to the Kremlin website:

http://eng.kremlin.ru/acts/6932

Particulars read as follows:

Vladimir Putin submitted to the State Duma the proposal to terminate the Agreement between the Russian Federation and Ukraine on the Parameters of the Division of the Black Sea Fleet of May 28, 1997; the Agreement between the Russian Federation and Ukraine on the Status and Conditions of the Presence of the Russian Black Sea Fleet on the Territory of Ukraine of May 28, 1997; the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of Ukraine on Payments Associated with the Division of the Black Sea Fleet and Its Presence on the Territory of Ukraine of May 28, 1997; and the Agreement between the Russian Federation and Ukraine on the Presence of the Russian Black Sea Fleet on the Territory of Ukraine of April 21, 2010.

The draft federal law would terminate a number of agreements governing the status and conditions of the presence of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet on Ukrainian territory: the Agreement between the Russian Federation and Ukraine on the Parameters of the Division of the Black Sea Fleet of May 28, 1997; the Agreement between the Russian Federation and Ukraine on the Status and Conditions of the Presence of the Russian Black Sea Fleet on the Territory of Ukraine of May 28, 1997; the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of Ukraine on Payments Associated with the Division of the Black Sea Fleet and Its Presence on the Territory of Ukraine of May 28, 1997; and the Agreement between the Russian Federation and Ukraine on the Presence of the Russian Black Sea Fleet on the Territory of Ukraine of April 21, 2010.

Following the signing on March 18, 2014 of the Agreement between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Crimea on Admitting to the Russian Federation the Republic of Crimea and Establishing the New Constituent Entities within the Russian Federation, the Russian-Ukrainian agreements are no longer of substance now that the legal relations of Russia leasing facilities on Ukrainian territory for the Russian Black Sea Fleet no longer apply.

Proceeding from the above and based on articles 61 and 62 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, the Russian Federation has the right to terminate the above-mentioned bilateral agreements.

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