In connection with the statement of Administrator of the President of the Russian Federation Mr. Kozhin on foreign property of the former USSR (interview for the Echo of Moscow radio channel), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine informs that notwithstanding conclusion of some bilateral and multilateral agreements on distribution of foreign property of the former USSR, this issue remains unsettled.
According to the statement of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, in order to settle the issue of succession to the national debt and assets of the former USSR in February 1997, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ratified a decree to consider this issue upon receipt of official information on detailed composition, book cost and market value of property of the former USSR abroad from the competent authorities of the Russian Federation.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has not received any such information hitherto which disenables to consider ratification of the Agreement on zero variant and adoption of an important and justified resolution by the Parliament of Ukraine as it disenables to make full evaluation the financial-economic consequences of such step for Ukraine.
Proceeding from the fact that the zero variant agreement has not come into effect, the Ukrainian party regards the previously concluded agreements on distribution of foreign property of the former USSR as valid and subject to proper fulfillment by the parties.
For complex settlement of the said issue, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine repeatedly proposed the Russian party to hold bilateral consultations as provided by the Article 15 of the Agreement on Succession to the External National Debt and Assets of the Former USSR of December 14, 1991, in order to find mutually acceptable ways of settlement of the succession issues. Simultaneously, the Russian party unfortunately does not accept such proposal for the present moment.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine emphasizes that the Ukrainian party proceeds from the necessity to obtain official information on detailed composition, book cost and market value of property of the former USSR abroad from the Russian Federation and to resume the respective negotiations.
