Russian President Vladimir Putin's assertion that Ukraine has allegedly failed to fulfill its obligation to transfer foreign assets of the Soviet Union to the Russian Federation is a manipulation of facts, the spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Oleg Nikolenko, said.
"The distribution of Soviet assets is governed by the 1991 Treaty on Succession of External State Debt and Assets of the USSR. According to the treaty, our state's share in the total debt and assets of the USSR is 16.37 percent," Nikolenko told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Monday.
He explained that in 1994 Ukraine and Russia signed the so-called "agreement on zero," according to which the Russian Federation pledged to pay Ukraine's share of 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 Russian side's disregard of legal requirements to provide information about 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 for either Ukraine or the Russian Federation. Consequently, to speak about the non-fulfillment of any obligations without a proper legal process seems unreasonable", - emphasized Nikolenko.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that in 1993, Russia undertook to repay all debts of the former Soviet Union, for all former Soviet republics "in the expectation that these republics would transfer foreign assets of the former Soviet Union to us," but Ukraine did not do this.
