Balts remind CE of Russian obligations to return embassies

VILNIUS - The Baltic states' delegations to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe have initiated a draft resolution recalling Russia's pledges to return Baltic states' embassy facilities taken over by the Soviet Union after World War II, MP Jonas Cekuolis, leader of the Lithuanian parliamentary delegation to the assembly, told reporters on April 30.

He said more than 30 Baltic and other parliamentarians signed on the proposal to adopt the resolution. The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly's executive bureau is to decide the draft resolution's fate at the end of May.

Last week during the assembly's debates in Strasburg, Latvian Foreign Minister Indulis Berzins said that Russia, oddly enough, hadn't returned embassy buildings belonging to the Baltic states and occupied after WWII.

Russia pledged to return the properties when it was accepted into the Council of Europe in 1996.

The draft resolution calls on Russia "to execute conscientiously promises made to the Council of Europe and immediately solve the question of returning former embassy buildings to their rightful owners."

Lithuania is demanding that Russia return diplomatic facilities in Paris and Rome that housed embassies of the Republic of Lithuania before WWII.

Russian institutions continue to operate in those facilities.

Last September the Baltic states made a joint statement to the Council of Europe recalling Russia's promise to "immediately solve all questions associated with demands by remaining Council of Europe states to return assets."

The joint statement said Russia hadn't budged at all on the issue. The Baltic states also stated they rejected any preconditions being made on them for the return of the buildings.

Russia has demanded that the extent of both countries' embassy buildings be determined on the basis of parity before it makes a decision on returning the embassy buildings to Lithuania.

Lithuania and Russia have been negotiating conditions for settling the embassies conflict for several years now to no avail.

The two states have signed a memorandum stating that the question of the Rome and Paris embassies will be addressed after an agreement is worked out on the assets of the Lithuanian Embassy in Moscow and the Russian Embassy in Vilnius.

Last October Lithuanian and Russian negotiators came to a dead end and failed to reach an agreement over their embassies.

Russia said the draft agreement would have meant the Lithuanian Embassy in Moscow was bigger than the Russian Embassy in Vilnius. The draft agreement presented would have given Russia ownership of the current embassy complex on Latviu Street in Vilnius, comprising an area of more than 4,800 square meters, and the ambassador's residence in Vilnius' Turniskes neighborhood, another 360 square meters.

Lithuania would have been obligated under the agreement to lease the grounds on which the two buildings stand to Russia for 49 years for 1 litas ($0.25) along with a parcel of land on Blindziu Street comprising 1,560 square meters for construction of new Russian embassy housing facilities.

The agreement would have given Lithuania ownership of the current embassy building on Borisoglebsky Alley in Moscow, the adjacent Lithuanian embassy guest housing facilities and another building housing embassy staff, plus the prewar Lithuanian Embassy on Povarskaya Street, sometimes referred to as Baltrusiaitis House. The total area of the Lithuanian buildings in Moscow is 8,305 square meters.