RUSSIA: Russia told Estonia yesterday it was pulling out of a border treaty because it did not like the way the Baltic country's parliament had ratified the deal.
The latest move reflects Russia's poor relations with the Baltics and could complicate rapprochement between Moscow and the EU to which Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania now belong.
Itar-Tass news agency quoted a Russian foreign ministry spokesman as saying Moscow had told the Estonians it was taking steps to "revoke international commitments" undertaken in the treaty signed on May 18th.
The reason for the Russian decision was that the Estonian parliament during ratification on June 20th had inserted "unacceptable clauses".
Russia took offence to clauses contained in a preamble to the Estonian ratification bill which contained indirect references to Soviet occupation.
At a Moscow summit with the EU on May 10th, Russian president Vladimir Putin called a border claim by Latvia "total nonsense", but said Russia had no border dispute with Estonia.
The treaty was signed but not ratified by Russia. - (Reuters)