The Upper Chamber of
the Russian parliament - The Federation Council yesterday with great
majority ratified the border treaty with Lithuania. 132 senators votes yes, 1
voted no and one sustained. This ends the ratification process in the Russian
parliament.
The treaty included
both land and sea borders.
Now the Russian
President Vladimir Putin will have to sign the ratification. The new LTRU border
treaty comes into power on the day of the exchanging of
notes.
Russia got a
simplified citizen transit agreement (Kaliningrad) in change of border
ratification and a readmission agreement with Lithuania. The new transit
agreement between Lithuania, EU and Russia is already approved by the EU and
valid from 1 July.
It was on 24 October
1997 the Lithuanian president Algirdas Brazauskas and Russian president Boris
Jelsin signed the border treaty regarding Vistytis. Two years later the
Lithuanian parliament Seimas ratified the treaty. Russia has until now demanded
that her citizen should be allowed transit through Lithuania without carrying
proper identification papers. Russia suggested that Russian military IDs, birth
certificates for smaller children and old Soviet passports expired 11 years ago
would do.
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NEGOTIATIONS ON THE ORDER OF ISSUING TRANSIT DOCUMENTS FOR
RUSSIAN CITIZENS CROSSING LITHUANIA TAKES PLACE
On 21 May in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania (MFA), negotiations
between the delegations of MFA and the Russian ministries of Foreign Affairs and
Transport concerning the agreement between the governments of the Republic of
Lithuania and the Russian Federation on the order of issuing facilitated rail
travel documents (FRTD) took place.
During the negotiations the
delegations agreed upon a draft settlement that now must be affirmed by the
governments of the Republic of Lithuania and the Russian Federation. The
governments of the two countries are expected to sign the agreement on the order
of issuing FRTD in the nearest future.
(Lithuanian Foreign Ministry Press realease)