What territories may be taken away from Russia in the coming years.

Last Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated that he would like to resolve the issue of ownership of the Kuril Islands with Russia and sign a peace treaty. According to him, “resolving the issue of the northern territories is a long-standing desire of the Japanese people.” Abe did not specify how Japan intends to resolve the issue. The countries have not been able to sign a peace treaty since the end of World War II.

We decided to recall the history of the Kuril Islands, and at the same time other disputed territories, which in the future may cause a conflict between Russia and its neighbors.

Kurile Islands

The dispute between Russia and Japan over the Kuril Islands can be traced back to the 18th century. At that time, the islands were inhabited by the Ainu people and there was no permanent Russian or Japanese population on them yet. Expeditions to the Kuril Islands were carried out by both the Russians and the Japanese, but the parties did not exercise any real control over the territories until the 19th century.

The first full-fledged delimitation agreement was signed by Russia and Japan in 1855 - it recognized the right of the Japanese to the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, as well as to the Habomai group of islands. The remaining islands of the Kuril chain remained with Russia. It is on the basis of this treaty that Japan today makes claims to the territory of the southern Kuril Islands.

Subsequently, the islands changed hands more than once - in 1875, Russia gave Japan the entire Kuril ridge in exchange for South Sakhalin, and in 1905, after the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, it also gave up South Sakhalin. In 1945, the USSR entered the war with Japan at the request of the United States on the terms of the subsequent return of the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin.

After winning the war, Soviet troops occupied the agreed territories, but Japan did not recognize the transfer of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai Islands to the USSR. The reason was that, according to Japanese cartography, they do not belong to the Kuril Islands, being the historical Japanese province of Chishima.

The Soviet Union agreed to transfer the islands of Habomai and Shikotan to Japan in exchange for recognition of the remaining territories for the USSR, but Japan was not satisfied with these conditions and a peace treaty between the countries was never signed.

In the USSR, the very fact of contesting territories was not recognized until 1991, so no political negotiations were held on this topic. The active political phase on the issue of the Kuril Islands has resumed between Japan and the Russian Federation.

In 2007, Russia proposed returning to the terms of the 1955 armistice with the transfer of Habomai and Shikotan, but Japan refused and preferred to continue to consider all the southern Kuril Islands as its “northern territories.”

In 2010 and 2012, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the disputed territories along with other high-ranking officials, which caused a disapproving reaction from Japan. A new attempt by the Japanese authorities to achieve rapprochement in resolving the territorial dispute has not yet received a response from the Russian side.

Amur Islands and Altai

The eastern part of the border between Russia and China runs along the Amur River and its tributary, the Ussuri. In the beds of these rivers there are a huge number of islands, the territorial status of which was repeatedly disputed by both sides throughout the twentieth century.

Thus, in 1969, an armed conflict broke out between the troops of the USSR and the PRC over Damansky Island, as a result of which control over it actually passed from the Soviet side to the Chinese. In 1991, the island was finally assigned to the PRC through the signing of an agreement.

In 2005, Russia and China concluded another agreement on the demarcation of the border between the two states, according to which 337 square kilometers of island territories, previously in fact under the control of Russia, were assigned to the PRC. Part of the Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island, Tarabarov Island and also other, smaller islands located near Khabarovsk, in the place where the Ussuri flows into the Amur, went to China.

According to Russian authorities, the transfer of disputed territories to China was made in order to regulate relations between the two countries and avoid a possible military conflict in the future. At the same time, already in 2012, China demanded that a section of the border in the Altai Mountains be moved deep into the Russian Federation.

The PRC hoped to receive 17 hectares of land, along which, perhaps in the future, a gas pipeline would run to the land of the rising sun. Thus, by transferring the disputed territories to China in 2005, the Russian authorities did not get rid of Chinese claims to our land, but rather created a dangerous precedent.

At the same time, in China itself, sentiments for the return of the former imperial borders are quite strong. The local press does not hesitate to publish maps on which the lands of Siberia and the Far East are designated as historical Chinese territory.

Pytalovo

In 1920, a peace treaty was signed between Soviet Russia and Latvia, according to which the parties recognized the sovereignty of the two states. At the same time, the state border was drawn. As a result, part of the Ostrovsky district of the former Russian Empire became part of Latvia.

In 1940, Stalin sent Soviet troops into Latvia, and in 1944 the territory of the former Ostrovsky district returned to the RSFSR, and it became the Pytalovsky district of the Pskov region.

After the collapse of the USSR, Latvia recognized its presence in the USSR as an occupation and on this basis put forward territorial claims to Pytalovsky district. At the same time, regarding this issue, the Russian authorities categorically refused to transfer the disputed territories to the Baltic country.

In 2007, the Latvians made concessions and the border was finally fixed as it remained after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Latvia decided that the claims were not worth the deterioration of relations with Russia; in addition, the country needed to resolve territorial disputes in order to join NATO.

Saatses Boot

Estonia also had territorial claims against Russia. They were, however, not related to Estonia’s historical right to certain Russian territories, but with banal inconvenience.

The fact is that one of the Estonian highways, built back in the USSR, partially passes through the territory of the Pechora district of the Pskov region, jutting into the lands of Estonia and resembling the shape of a boot. To drive along this road, you have to cross the state border twice.

Russia has introduced a special regime in this territory, according to which Estonian transport has the right to pass the Russian section of the road without border inspection, but it is forbidden to stop and walk there.

The Russian authorities intended to resolve these inconveniences in 2005 by transferring the “Saatses Boot” to Estonia in exchange for almost 100 hectares of forest areas. But the signing of the already completed agreement fell through due to the Estonian side introducing amendments to the text that did not suit the Russian Federation.

As a result, in 2014, the countries signed another demarcation agreement recognizing as valid the borders remaining after the collapse of the USSR. Estonia, like Latvia, at a certain stage was forced to curtail the issue of moving borders due to the rules for joining NATO.

Karelia

Throughout its history, Karelia has repeatedly become a disputed territory. It belonged to the Novgorod Republic, Sweden and the Russian Empire. In 1920, after civil war and the first Soviet-Finnish war, the western part of Karelia was transferred to Finland.

The territory was returned after World War II, although part of the historical region of Karelia remained part of Finland - the administrative units of North and South Karelia still exist there. Since the end of World War II, the Russian-Finnish border has not changed and has never been challenged by the official Finnish government.

However, recently, in Finland there has been growing sentiment for the return of the Karelian lands - according to sociological surveys, at least a third of the population are in favor of the unification of Karelia under the Finnish flag. Recently, several political organizations have emerged advocating the return of the disputed territory.

Spitsbergen

The Spitsbergen Islands were first visited in the 12th century by the Pomors who inhabited Rus'. They were finally discovered by the famous Dutch navigator Willem Barents in 1596. Since then, whaling and walrus hunting were regularly carried out on the island, until by the 19th century the animals were completely exterminated.

On Russian maps at that time, this territory was designated as part of the Russian Empire, although Denmark and Great Britain also had claims to it. At the same time, in fact, the islands remained without any management until the beginning of the twentieth century.

In 1920, Norway, taking advantage of the collapse of the Russian Empire, declared its rights to Spitsbergen. After this, an international treaty was signed on the special legal status of Spitsbergen, according to which the archipelago was recognized as the territory of the Norwegian crown.

Moreover, all countries that signed the treaty had the right to conduct commercial and research activities on the islands. Spitsbergen was also recognized as a demilitarized zone.

Between the world wars, coal mining was actively carried out on the archipelago; in addition, Spitsbergen became one of the centers of polar aviation. During the war, many mines were destroyed, but after that production resumed, mainly thanks to the efforts of Norway and the USSR.

By the time the Soviet Union collapsed, Svalbard's coal reserves had been depleted and Norwegian communities on the island had refocused their economies on Arctic tourism. The Norwegian authorities took the position of protecting the environmental situation on the archipelago, introducing new laws in the 2000s that greatly limited the activities of organizations on the islands.

The Russian part of Spitsbergen was unable to adapt to new realities and this moment lives on government subsidies. However, the Russian population of Spitsbergen is no more than 500 people, most of whom live in the village of Barentsburg. At the same time, about two thousand Norwegians live on the islands.

Russia and Norway have not had any official disputes about the ownership of Spitsbergen, although the countries have recently had territorial claims against each other. They primarily concerned the drawing of the border in the waters of the Barents Sea. The Russian side drew the border along the coast of the island of Spitsbergen, while the Norwegians insisted that the border should pass at an equal distance from Spitsbergen and Franz Josef Land.

The dispute entered an active phase when hydrocarbon reserves were discovered in this offshore territory. In addition, there is a busy fishing industry here, and Russian and Norwegian border guards have often arrested fishing vessels here. In 2010, the dispute was resolved by signing a demarcation agreement, which was drawn up on a compromise basis.

Alaska

Alaska was discovered by Russian navigators in the 18th century and until 1867 it was managed by the so-called Russian-American Company. However, after the unsuccessful Crimean War, it became clear that Russia was simply not able to protect such a remote and undeveloped territory as Alaska.

In addition, after Alexander II carried out large-scale reforms, the treasury was severely short of money, and the government decided to sell the peninsula. The amount of the transaction with the US authorities was $7.2 million, that is, $4.74 per square kilometer.

Almost immediately after the sale, gold was discovered in Alaska, but the mining industry began to actively develop only towards the end of the 19th century, when the Golden fever. In 1959, Alaska became a state, and now there is extensive mining, including oil.

Since the sale of the peninsula, official Russia has never expressed its rights to it, although politicians keep reminding us of Alaska’s Russian past. Of course, in the wake of these sentiments is Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who has long been proposing to demand Alaska back from the United States. After the events in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea to the Russian Federation, talk about the return of Alaska resumed with renewed vigor, although for the most part they are rather of a comic nature.

SEPTEMBER 28,

On September 28, 1939, a Treaty of Friendship and Border between the USSR and Germany was concluded. It was signed by German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop and People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR Molotov. We decided to talk about five disputed territories of Russia with other states.

The treaty between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union was concluded on September 28, 1939. It was signed after the invasion of Poland by the armies of Germany and the USSR by the German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop and the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR Molotov. According to this treaty, the territory of Poland was divided between Germany and the USSR. The text of the treaty and a map with the border line between the USSR and Germany were published in the Soviet press. According to this agreement, Lithuania passed into the sphere of influence of the USSR. This ensured the Soviet Union that Germany would not interfere in its relations with Lithuania, which ultimately led to the establishment of the Lithuanian SSR on June 15, 1940.

DISPUTED ISLANDS

The Kuril Islands include 30 large and many small islands. They are part of the Sakhalin region of Russia and have important military-strategic and economic significance. However, the southern islands of the archipelago - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai group - are disputed by Japan, which includes them in Hokkaido Prefecture.

Moscow’s principled position is that the southern Kuril Islands became part of the USSR, of which Russia became the legal successor, and are an integral part of the territory of the Russian Federation on legal grounds following the Second World War, enshrined in the UN Charter, and Russian sovereignty over them, having the corresponding international legal confirmation is beyond doubt.

In Japan, they say that the northern territories are centuries-old territories of this country that continue to be under the illegal occupation of Russia. According to the Japanese position, if it is confirmed that the northern territories belong to Japan, it is ready to be flexible in the time and procedure for their return. In addition, since Japanese citizens living in the northern territories were forcibly evicted by Joseph Stalin, Japan is willing to reach an agreement with the Russian government so that Russian citizens living there will not suffer the same tragedy. In other words, after the return of the islands to Japan, it intends to respect the rights, interests and desires of the Russians currently living on the islands.

TOOK ONE AND A HALF ISLANDS

Problem disputed islands Tarabarov and Bolshoy Ussuriysky arose in 1964, when a new draft agreement on the border between Russia and China was developed. And the story was like this. In 1689, the Treaty of Nerchinsk was concluded, when Russia recognized China's rights to lands on the right bank of the Amur and in Primorye. In the middle of the 19th century, taking advantage of China's weakness, Russia annexed 165.9 thousand square kilometers of Primorye, which were under joint management. China was left without access to the Sea of ​​Japan. During World War II, an agreement was concluded between Stalin and the commander-in-chief of the PLA, Mao Zedong, who controlled the northern regions of China, to draw a border line along the Chinese bank of the Amur and Ussuri rivers. Thus, China was actually deprived of the right to use the fairway of these rivers, but received support from the USSR.

In 2004, an agreement was signed between Russia and China on the Russian-Chinese state border on its eastern part. The document defines the border in two sections: in the area of ​​Bolshoy Island in the upper reaches of the Argun River (Chita Region) and in the area of ​​Tarabarov and Bolshoy Ussuriysky islands at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri rivers near Khabarovsk. Tarabarov was completely given to China, and Ussuriysky - only partially. The border line, according to the document, runs both in the middle of the rivers and on land. The territory of both sections (about 375 sq. km) is distributed approximately in half.

WE WANTED TO CHOP OFF A PIECE

Estonia lays claim to the Pechora district of the Pskov region and the right bank of the Narva River with Ivangorod. On May 18, 2005, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Russia and Estonia Sergei Lavrov and Urmas Paet signed agreements on the state border and delimitation of maritime spaces in the Narva and Finnish Gulfs, which secured the passage of the state border between the two states along the former administrative border between the RSFSR and the Estonian SSR “with minor adjustments to the conditions adequate territorial compensation." One of the main subjects of negotiations on the Russian-Estonian border is the “Saatse Boot”. It was planned to transfer it to Estonia in exchange for other territories. The treaty was not ratified by Russia due to amendments made to it by the Estonian side.

FISH WAR

For almost half a century, Russia has been waging an undeclared fish war with Norway. Most of the fighting takes place in the famous “twilight zone” in the Barents Sea. This is a disputed body of water the size of half Germany or Italy, two thirds Great Britain.

The essence of the dispute comes down to the fact that Russia drew the border along the coast of the island of Spitsbergen, Norway believed that the border should be equidistant from Spitsbergen on one side and Franz Josef Land and the island of Novaya Zemlya on the other. Since the states were on friendly terms, the border dispute rarely resulted in any action, and Russian fishing vessels were occasionally detained. However, the dispute later escalated, as hydrocarbon reserves were discovered in the Barents Sea, including in the disputed territories. In April 2010, the parties agreed that a new delimitation line would divide the disputed territory into two equal parts; the 40-year-old dispute was finally resolved on September 15, 2010 after the signing of the agreement “On the delimitation of maritime spaces and cooperation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean” transfer of 90 thousand sq. km. in favor of Norway.

CRIMEA - TERRITORY OF DISPUTES

For many years, controversy has not subsided around, perhaps, the most beautiful and favorite vacation spot of the Soviet people. Crimea is not only an “all-Union health resort”, but also a strategic territory.

In 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, relations between Ukraine and Russia worsened. The people living in Russia, after the loss of so many territories, remembered Crimea, which could be returned, because... many did not approve of its transfer to Ukraine in 1954. At the same time, 80 percent of Crimean residents said that they consider themselves citizens of Russia, and Crimea is part of its territory. But Ukraine still had one very significant lever of pressure on Russia - the Black Sea Fleet. In January 1992, the then President of Ukraine L. Kravchuk announced taking the Black Sea Fleet under his wing. This was a disaster for Russia. But the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine is a very huge loss for Russia.

Most of all, disputed territories that may have military significance attract the attention of states. Shelves and sea areas rich in fish are a tasty morsel. Last but not least in importance are those places where you can successfully develop. Such economically important objects are most often the subject of government disputes. The Russian border is 60,000 kilometers long, and the longest maritime border with the United States.

Claims against Russia from Asian states

The Kuril Islands are currently a stumbling block for the signing of a peace treaty between Russia and Japan. Since the end of World War II, it has not been signed between these countries, although Japan finally capitulated on September 6, 1945. Today these two states are in a state of truce; the Japanese are demanding that part of the Kuril ridge be given to them.

The border with China is demarcated, but it has claims against Russia. And today the Tarabarov and Bolshoy Ussuriysky islands on the Amur River are controversial. Here the borders are not even delimited. But China is taking a different path; it is systematically populating the territory of the Russian Federation with its citizens. The water space and shelves of the Caspian Sea are divided by Russian-Iranian agreements. The states that have newly appeared in the political world, and these are Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, are demanding that the bottom of the Caspian Sea be divided in a new way. Azerbaijan is not waiting, it is already developing its subsoil.

Claims from Europe

Today, Ukraine has a territorial claim to Russia; it does not want to agree with the loss of Crimea. Previously there were disputes about Kerch Strait and the Sea of ​​Azov, which Russia proposed to consider internal between the two countries, while Ukraine demanded their division. There are problems, and they are very difficult to solve. Latvia tried to make claims regarding the Pytalovsky district, but for the sake of the possibility of joining the EU, it abandoned it.

Despite the fact that the media are circulating rumors about Estonia’s claims to the Ivangorod region, official Tallinn has not made any claims. Lithuania plans to annex the Kaliningrad region, but it is unlikely to want a war with Russia.

Norway is not satisfied with the Russian border between the islands of the Arctic Ocean. Norway demands that the border be established exactly in the middle between the islands belonging to the two countries; it wants to review the borders of Russian polar possessions. In 1926, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee established the border of the polar possessions of the USSR, including in the state all the islands in the north of the Eastern Hemisphere, including the North Pole. Today, many countries consider this document unlawful.

View of Balaklava, TASS

Territorial claims to Russia, as to the most big country on the planet, the phenomenon is not new and Russia’s reaction in this matter is a real reason for pride. For each “disputed” territory, he calmly and politely, with sympathy and understanding, tries to explain that all lands belonging to Russia and the Russian people will forever remain with Russia. But the leaders of a number of countries do not want to take this obvious position into account, constantly making noise around the so-called “disputed” Russian territories.

But the most interesting thing is that Russia does not make territorial claims to any country in the world, and as it has happened historically, this is how it has turned out. After all, if we start presenting it, we will have to remember the powerful Russian Empire, whose territory back in the 19th century was 21.8 million km² (that is, 1/6 of the land) - it ranked second in the world, after the British Empire. And this does not take into account the territory of Alaska, which was part of it from 1744 to 1867 and occupied an area of ​​1,717,854 km², without taking into account the Aleutian Islands, as well as parts of the Pacific coast of the USA and Canada... Russia does not remind us of all this, but it could ...

So, which countries have territorial claims against Russia?

The Republic of Korea: Noktundo Island

Photo: smitsmitty.livejournal.com

Noktundo has belonged to the Korean Joseon Dynasty since the 15th century. In 1587, a battle took place on its territory between detachments of Jurchen nomads and a local garrison under the command of Yi Sunsin, the national hero of Korea.

During the shallowing of the northern branch of the Tumannaya, the river bed changed from time to time, as a result of which Noktundo sometimes connected with the land of Primorye. Despite this, the territory of the island continued to be under Korean jurisdiction.

In 1860, without the consent of the Korean side, Noktundo ceded to the Russian Empire in accordance with the Beijing Treaty between Qing China and Russia. Throughout the 20th century, the territory of the island was part of the Khasansky district of Primorsky Krai.

In 1990, the USSR and the DPRK signed an agreement on establishing the state border line along the Tumannaya fairway, thanks to which the territory former island was recognized as Soviet. This deal was not recognized by South Korea, which continues to consider the Noktundo territory its own.

Japan: Kuril Islands

Perhaps the most relevant today are Japan's claims against Russia regarding the southern Kuril Islands: Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai archipelago. These territories first appeared on the map of Russia in the middle of the 18th century, when the captain of the Russian fleet, Martyn Petrovich Shpanberg, marked the Lesser Kuril Ridge on it. Catherine II formalized these annexations by decree of 1786, calling them “lands acquired by Russian sailors.”

However, already in 1855 they were transferred to Japan according to the Treaty of Shimoda as a guarantee of “permanent peace and sincere friendship between Russia and Japan.” This agreement was followed by the St. Petersburg Treaty, according to which all the Kuril Islands were transferred to Japan in exchange for the Japanese part of Sakhalin. The latter was subsequently lost during the Russo-Japanese War.

The chance to return the lost territories presented itself after the Yalta Conference on February 11, 1945, at which an agreement was reached on the USSR's entry into the war against Japan, subject to the transfer of Southern Sakhalin and all the Kuril Islands to it. In accordance with this agreement, General of the Allied Forces Douglas MacArthur in 1946, by a special Memorandum, excluded the Kuril Islands (Chishima Islands), the Habomai group of islands (Habomadze) and the island of Sikotan from the territories of the Land of the Rising Sun.

However, a peace treaty between Russia and Japan was never signed. Japan refused to recognize a number of the Kuril Islands, which were transferred to Russia, as “Kuril Islands”. According to the official position of the Land of the Rising Sun, the islands of Iturup, Shikotan, Kunashir and Habomai (Southern Kuriles) were not part of the Kuril Islands and Japan did not abandon them.

The territorial dispute only worsened during the Cold War. In 1956, the USSR, according to the maritime declaration, was ready to cede the islands of Habomai and Shikotan to Japan, leaving behind the strategically important Kunashir and Iturup. However, in the event of such a compromise, the United States threatened the Land of the Rising Sun with the deprivation of the Ryukyu archipelago with the island of Okinawa, which was then under American control.

The failed compromise was, in fact, the last precedent in history when the Kuril issue could move forward. The Treaty on Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan, adopted shortly after this, legitimized the presence of American troops on Japanese territory, which was naturally regarded by the USSR as a threat to its own interests. The dispute “about the northern territories” has reached a complete dead end.

Today, the four islands of the South Kuril Islands, as well as the status of the Northern Islands and South Sakhalin, remain the main stumbling block in Russian-Japanese relations, which prevents summing up the results of World War II and signing a peace treaty. According to Russia’s position, all the Kuril Islands, including Iturup, Shikotan, Kunashir and Habomai, as well as all of Sakhalin, belong to the Russian Federation legally, following the results of World War II.

Russia is still ready to make concessions in the form of the islands of Habomai and Shikotan. Japan, whose position is consistently supported by the United States, considers all the Southern Kuril Islands to be its ancestral lands, illegally occupied by Russia, and the Northern Kuril Islands and Southern Sakhalin as territories with an uncertain status. For its part, a peace treaty is possible only with the return of all four disputed islands. At the same time, there is a third force - the indigenous Ainu people, who insist on their sovereign rights to Southern Islands.

Indigenous people of Aina

The situation sometimes reaches the point of absurdity. Thus, in 2012, the Japanese government officially expressed regret over Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Kunashir Island, calling it “serious obstacles in bilateral relations.”

The return of the Kuril Islands is the cornerstone of the foreign policy of the current Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Today, Japanese media take the position that territorial issue, has finally moved forward due to Vladimir Putin's statement that the lack of a peace treaty with Japan is abnormal.

Latvia: claims to Pytalovo

The legacy of the revolution and the subsequent division of the Russian Empire was a long-term territorial dispute between Russia and Latvia over the Pytalovsky district of the Pskov region. This territory was transferred to the latter under the terms of the Riga Peace Treaty between Soviet Russia and Latvia of 1920. According to the official Latvian version, when determining the border in 1920, the ethnographic principle was applied. According to other sources, Latvia insisted on transferring this region to it, since it had an important railway junction. In any case, Pytalovo became part of the separated Latvia, and was soon renamed Jaunlatgale.

But the lost territories were returned twenty years later, in 1940, after Latvia was included in the USSR as the Latvian SSR. And in 1944, Pytalovo and the surrounding area became part of the RSFSR, after liberation from Nazi occupation. After the collapse of the USSR, Latvia refused to recognize these territorial changes, calling its inclusion in the Union of Socialist Republics an occupation, and Pytalovo an illegally annexed territory, insisting on the return of the 1920 borders. The area with the telling name “Pytalovo” has long become a source of irritation in relations between Moscow and Riga.

He disrupted the signing of the Russian-Latvian border agreement when Latvia unexpectedly included in the project a unilateral, “clarifying” declaration with claims to these territories. According to Latvian politicians, the fact that Pytalovo was owned by Russia violated the Latvian constitution, according to which the border (naturally, corresponding to the 1920 border) cannot be changed without the consent of citizens in a referendum. In response to this, Vladimir Putin uttered his famous phrase: “It’s their ears from a dead donkey, not the Pytalovsky district.”

Latvia could have insisted for a long time on its undoubted ownership of the “five kilometers” of the Pskov region, if not for its desire to join the European Union, one of the main requirements of which is clearly defined borders. In 2007, President Vike-Freiberga renounced her territorial claims, expressing the hope that this would: “help unfreeze the really frozen relations with our eastern neighbor.”

Finland: the Karelian question

While Latvia has abandoned its territorial claims, in Finland there is a growing number of public organizations advocating for the return of Karelia and other territories lost during the Second World War. Vesti Karelia reported about the upcoming public discussion on hypothetical ways of returning Karelia, which could take place in the very near future. According to them, among the initiators are the revanchist organization ProKarelia, the Karelia club, and the magazine Karjalan kuvalehti.

During its history, Karelia was a Swedish duchy, a Korelsky district, and an Olonets governorship. This land has become disputed more than once.

The Karelian question arose as a result of the terms of the Tartu Peace Treaty of 1920, at the end of the Finnish Civil War and the Soviet-Finnish War. According to its terms, Western Karelia became the property of Finland. The territories were returned during the Second World War, and the Karelian-Finnish population was evacuated to Finland. In 1956, the Karelo-Finnish SSR was transformed into an autonomy within the RSFSR.

Despite the fact that Finland does not officially raise the issue of revising borders, in the country, according to recent polls, 38% of respondents are in favor of the return of Western Karelia. In 2011, the leader of the ProKarelia movement, already known to us, Veikko Saksi, came up with a similar initiative, reporting that the return of Karelia to Finland complied with all EU standards. However, the President of Finland, Sauli Niiniste, during his working visit to Moscow in 2013, denied this information, saying that he had never heard such a proposal among Finnish legislators.

China: dispute over 17 hectares

Today, China has territorial claims to almost all of its neighbors. Russia is no exception. More recently, in 2005, the Russian-Chinese border underwent changes in the form of 340 square kilometers: a plot of land in the area of ​​Bolshoy Island and two sections in the area of ​​Tarabarov and Bolshoy Ussuriysky islands, at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri rivers, came under the jurisdiction of the PRC. However, this was not the end of China’s territorial claims to Russia.

In 2012, when checking the state border between the countries, China announced the need to shift it deeper into Russia, putting forward a claim to “originally Chinese” 17 hectares of the Altai mountainous area. It is worth noting that the dispute arose over a small area of ​​inaccessible territory, located at an altitude of 2500-3000 meters, and not currently equipped with checkpoints. As a result, the Chinese side was unable to provide any documents to support its claims to the Altai 17 hectares, which overnight turned into disputed territories.

Ukraine Crimea

View of Balaklava, TASS

Crimean peninsula, where the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol are located, became part of Russia on March 18, 2014, following the results of a referendum held on its territory, in which the overwhelming majority of Crimeans voted for reunification with Russia.

When seceding from Ukraine, Crimea used the same grounds as it did in 1991 when seceding from the USSR, namely:

• The right of peoples to self-determination
• Security threat due to coup d'etat
• Continuation of centuries-old historical traditions

Ukraine, of which Crimea had previously been a part, had already lost its previously existing statehood at the time of the referendum, since the coup, during which the current president was deposed by parliament with obvious violations of constitutional procedures, automatically placed all power in the country outside the constitution and legally destroyed the state as such.

The results of the referendum are not openly recognized by Ukraine and the West; the rest of the world for the most part simply avoids the issue. In any case, the topic will remain open for some time, among other things, because in 1954 Crimea was transferred to Ukraine with different borders - since then the northern part of the Arabat Spit with the village of Strelkovoe still remains in the Kherson region. In general, the issue is closely related to future fate Novorossiya.