Yevgeny Fyodorov of the United Russia Party has put forward a bill to the State Duma chairman proposing to cancel the 1991 decree by the Soviet Union State Council regarding the recognition of Lithuania’s independence.
The explanatory note says the decree was illegitimate since the Soviet Union State Council used to be an extraconstitutional entity. Moreover, there was no independence referendum in Lithuania to formally exit the USSR.
“None of the state bodies was authorised to either allow the member republics to exit the Union or to terminate the USSR’s status of a unified state,” reads the note.
Lithuania reclaimed its independence in 1991 after being part of the Soviet Union for 50 years when the Supreme Council of the Lithuanian SSR adopted its Independence Act. The Soviet authorities in Moscow demanded that the act be cancelled. Mass protests broke out in Lithuania, resulting in Vilnius, the country’s capital, being invaded by the Soviet army. However, the Soviet Union eventually recognised Lithuania’s independence on 6 September 1991, eleven days before the country was admitted to the United Nations.
