MOSCOW. Oct 7 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has not found any crime in the activities of former Soviet foreign minister and current Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze when he signed the so-called "Baker- Shevardnadze" agreement to divide the Bering and Chukchi Seas.
"A corresponding check established the Shevardnadze did not exceed his powers by signing the aforementioned document. It was conducted under a request of Alexander Nazarov, who heads the Federation Council's committee for Northern and minority nationalities," Deputy Prosecutor General Konstantin Chaika told Interfax on Monday.
According to him, the former Soviet foreign minister acted in compliance with instructions from higher authorities, including a decree of the Soviet Council of Minister issued in May 1990.
Earlier, Nazarov raised the issue of Shevardnadze's role in preparing and signing the Soviet-U.S. agreement on the sea division in the Far East. The senator suggested that this agreement was inconsistent with the national interests of the Soviet Union and now Russia.
The agreement was signed between Shevardnadze and then U.S. secretary of state James Baker in Washington in 1990. According to it, the United States acquired some areas in the Bering and the Chukchi Seas. As a result, a historical line drawn in 1867 dividing the sea areas between Russia and the United States was changed. Russian fishing vessels lost access to a 200-mile area of the Bering Sea.
The U.S. Congress has ratified the Baker-Shevardnadze agreement, while the Russian parliament has not done so yet.