Putin ordered the authorities to search for tsarist Russian real estate in the area, which also includes Finland. Arkady Moshes, program director of the Foreign Policy Institute, believes that the scam is about money-transferring bureaucrats, whose work is not to be ignored in Finland.
in Russia published on Thursday president Vladimir Putin the decision to grant funding to a project that touches an exceptionally large area. The project the purpose is to map the legal situation of Russian-owned real estate not only in present-day Russia, but also in the territory of the former Soviet Union and the Imperial Russia that preceded it.
According to the text, the funding will be granted for the costs related to the search for “properties of the Russian Federation, the former Russian Empire and the former Soviet Union” and the legal protection of the property.
Finland was part of the Russian Empire as a self-governing Grand Duchy in 1809–1917. Alaska in the United States was also formerly part of the empire.
Bureaucratic the vague text is apt to arouse suspicion in Russia's neighboring countries that were formerly part of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, or both. In addition to Finland, the text touches on Ukraine and Poland, among others.
Arkady Moshes
Is this a new tool that Russia can use to put pressure on its neighbors and create crises in the factories? Hardly, estimates the program director of the Foreign Policy Institute (Upi). Arkady Moshes for HS.
“I believe that this can be left to its own devices,” says Moshes, who heads UP's Russia, the EU's Eastern Neighborhood and Eurasia research program.
Moshes according to the decision, it is probably about bureaucrats using state money in Russia for their own ends, whose tinkering has no other consequences for the neighboring countries.
“It is highly unlikely that in today's Europe or in the world there is such a former property of Tsarist Russia that is not on the books.”
According to Moshes, in theory, individual points of dispute could perhaps be found, but Russia's chances of starting, let alone winning, lawsuits over issues dating back more than a hundred years of independence are non-existent.
The researcher finds alternative realities in his own interest through Putin's Russia Yes Constructive Law. This has been seen in Ukraine, where Russia has annexed areas of Ukraine that the aggressor does not even militarily control.
Russia has annexed by legislation the regions of Ukraine that it does not control. The photo shows a Ukrainian soldier on guard near the front in Kupyansk in December 2023.
However, Moshes does not see how Russia would benefit from using the latest decision as a weapon to strike against neighboring countries.
According to him, the historical State Agreements between Finland and the Soviet Union after independence and wars have been legally far-reaching, so it would be difficult for modern Russia to find points of contention.
Moshes does not even believe that the new project would be used as a propaganda weapon for the domestic public to create images of the enemy.
The decision has not aroused passion in the Russian media, and according to Moshes, the Russians hardly care about real estate disputes from a century ago in Finland or Poland.
“The matter does not resonate in any way in the Russian media. The issue is so trivial that I don't think public opinion can be mobilized around it,” says Moshes.
The fact that official Russia has not tried to attract attention with its decision can speak in favor of this. For example, no separate announcement has been published about it on the website of the presidential office in English or Russian.
The Russian imperial double-headed eagle can be seen atop the chapel of St. Petersburg Palace photographed in 1989, two years before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
#Russia #Researcher #Russia39s #order #search #tsaristera #properties #left #Finland
