Putin Says Ukraine Did Not Hand Over Soviet Foreign Assets to Russia. Kyiv Reacts

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry says Putin is manipulating facts.

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of failing to transfer to Russia the Soviet Union's foreign property, which it was supposedly supposed to do in exchange for Russia repaying its external debt. 

Vladimir Putin
President of Russia

In 1993, we undertook to pay off all the debts of the former Soviet Union, on behalf of all the former Soviet republics, on the expectation that these republics would transfer to us the foreign assets of the former Soviet Union. We did pay off the debts for everyone, but far from all of them fulfilled this obligation to transfer foreign assets to us. For example, Ukraine has still not done so. 

He noted that “in some countries where we said that we had paid the debts of such-and-such states and their foreign assets were due to us, we were told: ‘That's your problem. Go and negotiate with these republics so that they do not claim these assets.’” 

After the collapse of the USSR, according to the Vienna Convention, Russia was entitled to 61.34% of its property, and Ukraine to 16.37%. 

Subsequently, Russia concluded with the former republics the so-called “zero option agreement,” under which it took on the entire Soviet debt in exchange for all of its assets. 

Recall that in March 2014, after the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine, then-Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk stated that the division of property after Ukraine's exit from the USSR had not been effectively completed, so Ukraine would prepare the relevant legal documents to express a claim against Russia, which had illegally kept the property for itself. 

In August 2014, the Cabinet of Ministers created a commission to protect Ukraine's interests in returning the former USSR property belonging to Ukraine. 

At the time, Russia's Foreign Ministry stated that Moscow reserves the right to insist on immediate compensation of $20 billion from Ukraine should Kyiv return to the issue of the “zero option.” 

Ukraine's Reaction

Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that after the collapse of the USSR, Russia did not provide information on the value of Ukrainian assets abroad from the Soviet Union, so President Vladimir Putin's accusations that Ukraine has not transferred them are manipulation. 

Oleg Nikolenko
Spokesperson for Ukraine's Foreign Ministry

The claim by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine has supposedly failed to fulfill its obligation to transfer the Soviet Union's foreign assets to the Russian Federation is manipulation of facts. The distribution of Soviet property is governed by the Agreement on Succession to the External State Debt and Assets of the USSR of 1991. According to the agreement, our state's share in the total debt and assets of the USSR is 16.37%.

According to him, in 1994 Ukraine and Russia signed the so-called “zero option agreement,” under which Russia undertook to pay Ukraine's share of the USSR's external state debt as of December 1, 1991. 

For its part, Ukraine was to transfer to Russia its share of the USSR's assets as of December 1, 1991. Nikolenko said that the Russian side's disregard of the lawful demands to provide information on the value of the Ukrainian assets that were to be transferred made it impossible for the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to ratify the agreement. 

“This document has not entered into force either for Ukraine or for Russia. Consequently, speaking of non-fulfillment of any obligations without a proper legal process seems unfounded,” Nikolenko said.