Russian Prosecutor General's Office to Investigate Legitimacy of Baker-Shevardnadze Agreement

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has set up a working group to investigate the legitimacy of the so-called Baker-Shevardnadze Agreement on the delimitation of waters in the Bering and Chukhotsk Seas. According to the Prosecutor General's press office, the investigation is taking place at the request of Alexander Nazarov, the chairman of the Federation Council's Committee on the North and Small Ethnic Groups.

The working group, which is headed by Deputy Prosecutor General Konstantin Chaika, will see whether the Communist Party Politburo, the Council of Ministers, the Supreme Soviet and the Soviet Foreign Ministry exceeded their powers in preparing and signing this agreement.

The agreement was signed in 1990 in Washington by Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze and US Secretary of State James Baker. In accordance with this document, the US received part of the waters in the Bering Strait and the Chukhotsk Sea. As a result, the historical marine boundary between Russia and the US, which dated from 1867, was changed and Russian fishermen lost access to important fishing grounds.