Russia’s Rain TV reports that Deputies from Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, have sent a letter to Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, asking his office to assess the legitimacy of the establishment of the State Council of the Soviet Union.
The State Council of The Soviet Union was created by Mikhail Gorbachev after the failed August 1991 coup d’etat and was the highest organ of state power until December 1991. The State Council formally recognized the independence of the Baltic states on September 6, 1991, one day after it was established.
The United Russia Deputies suggest that the State Council itself was unconstitutional and its decisions illegitimate.
In their letter, the Deputies state that it was the State Council of the USSR that adopted the decision to recognize the independence of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which “discarded a large and strategically important part of the Soviet Union.”
The letter also says that the decisions of The State Council were “hugely damaging to the sovereignty, territorial integrity, national security and the Soviet Union’s defenses.” The letter referred to the decisions of The State Council as “criminal acts” and “especially dangerous state crimes” that qualify as treason.