[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 42 (Monday, April 18, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 18, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        RUSSIAN IMPERIAL DECREE

                                 ______


                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 18, 1994

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to insert into the Record the 
following decree signed on April 5 by President Yeltsin of Russia.
  The decree declares that Russia will build several military bases in 
the Commonwealth of Independent States and Latvia. Mr. Speaker, this is 
truly an ominous development. Russian foreign policy has become more 
and more aggressive over the past year, and this latest decree seems to 
confirm the worst of our fears.
  Russian retractions on Latvia's inclusion in the decree, claiming 
that it was a technical error, are not to be taken at face value. 
Recall, Mr. Speaker, that Soviet maps from 1939, before the Baltic 
annexations of 1940, had already begun to show the Baltics as Soviet 
territory. When asked about this, Stalin replied that the maps were a 
``mistake.''
  While the decree does allude to ``negotiations'' with these other 
countries, there is in the decree an air of inevitability. The Russians 
are obviously assuming that the other countries will capitulate.
  And given the Moscow-Washington tag team against the former Soviet 
Republics, it is probably a good bet that they will. Economic and 
military threats by Moscow combined with economic carrots and political 
threats by Washington have already broken the will of several former 
Soviet Republics.
  Witness the case of Latvia. As several thousand Russian troops 
continue to loiter in that Baltic country, the Clinton administration 
recently pressured the Latvians to be ``more accommodative'' to Russian 
concerns and held out the prospects of further aid to Latvia. The 
result was the initialing of a pact which called for the final 
withdrawal of Russian troops by August 31, but only under the 
conditions that the Russians will continue to operate a radar base in 
Latvia and that the Latvian Government will pay the pension of 
thousands of Russian military retirees. This is not the way it was 
supposed to be, Mr. Speaker.
  Or how about Ukraine? The Moscow-Washington axis was successful in 
pressuring President Kravchuk into unilateral nuclear disarmament, and 
everybody applauded. But given recent events, and especially this 
decree, does anybody seriously still believe that Ukrainian nuclear 
weapons represent the threat in that part of the world?
  Mr. Speaker, the Eurasian Continent is on the verge of a great deal 
of trouble, and the Clinton administration seems oblivious. Congress 
must stand up and be heard. I thank the Speaker for the time and submit 
the text of the decree for the Record.

           Decree by the President of the Russian Federation

                                                    April 5, 1994.
       Consent to the proposal of Russia's Defense Ministry, which 
     has been approved by Russia's Foreign Affairs Ministry, to 
     create Russian Federation military (hard to read, perhaps, 
     ``eight'') bases on the territory of CIS and Latvia, to 
     ensure the security of the Russian Federation and the above 
     named nations, as well as to test new weapons and military 
     machinery.
       The Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry, together with the 
     Defense Ministry and other interested ministries and 
     departments of the Russian Federation are to negotiate this 
     question with CIS members and the Republic of Latvia and the 
     obtained agreements have to be formulated by appropriate 
     documents.
     B. Yeltsin.

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