I came across a very interesting article, alas in Russian (for the
benifit of those who read Russian:
http://karty.narod.ru/claim/rfus/rfus.html ). As part of a detailed
account of the negotiations (the accuracy of which I can't really
judge, because lots of the literature on this subject on the internet
is not very unpartial, to say the least), it mentions the following
interesting points:
1. The use of the 1867 line was proposed by the US and accepted by
the Soviet Union, although it is a bit strange that this line, which
had only one function at the time it was drawn, i.e. to divide land
(islands) and not sea, serves more than a century later for just that
purpose (that is, dividing sea/seabed). The modern way of dividing
sea is normally with the use of a median line. But once both sides
agreed, it's OK.
2. There were two 1867 lines in use: the loxodromy (rhumb line) used
by the USSR, and the great circle arc used by the US. A compromise
was found, the so-called "pragmatic line", which runs in between the
two others and divides the disputed area into two halves. But the
line was meant to divide the 200 nm-zones. Now the Americans wanted
that line to be used everywhere, i.e. also in the Donut Hole. The
Soviets, however, proposed to divide the Donut Hole equally between
the two.
(Needless to say, by the way, that in 1867 no-one cared, because the
only concern was to decide which islands were to go with mainland
Alaska to the US, and which were to stay under Russian rule.)
3. At the end, the Soviets gave in to the Americans. The treaty was
signed, but never ratified by the Soviet, or Russian, parliaments.
There is, however, an agreement between James Baker and Eduard
Shevardnadze that this treaty is in force, provisionally, until
ratification takes place. This is an agreement between governments,
without ratification from one or both parliaments (i.c. the Duma,
because the US parliament has ratified it), and therefore not
legitimate as an international treaty.
The map on this page has the following comments:
"Orthodromy - the USA position (the line looking slightly bent)
Loxodromy - the USSR position (the straight line)
The area in dispute between the loxodromy and the orthodromy -
Surface area about 18300 sq. km
Part of the economic zone of the USSR, not covered by the USA zone,
ceded to the Americans - Surface area about 13200 sq. km (the area
north of the Donut Hole = one of the three "eastern special areas")
The part of the shelf in dispute, ceded to the Americans. The USSR
proposed to split it equally - Surface area about 175000 sq. km (this
is the Donut Hole)"
I still do not understand why the line in the Donut Hole is important
vis-a-vis the extension of the EEZ's by taking up all of the
continental shelf, because I don't see how the Donut Hole can be part
of the continental shelf. But since everything I've read seems to
take for granted that the Donut Hole is, indeed, part of the
continental shelf, I must be overlooking something here. Can anyone
help?
By the way, there is an international fishing agreement about the
Donut Hole, to which the US, Russia, South Korea, China, Japan, and
Poland are signatories. So at this moment, it looks like it is
definitely a high seas exclave.
The fact that the US is abiding by the treaty because of the
government agreement, and Russia (or at least some Russian fishermen)
is not, has led to some incidents with fishing boats in the last
couple of years. The chairman of the Russian State Fishery Committee,
the well-known former governor of the Maritime Territory Nazdratenko,
has quite recently called for re-negotiating the treaty. It looks
like the Russians are not going to ratify the treaty as it is now.
Peter S.