He headed the delegation to Moscow on 6 August 1940 that formally delivered the petition to Stalin and the Soviet government, an act that has tainted Vares as a traitor to the majority of Estonian people.

[1] When the Kremlin "accepted" the petition in August 1940, Vares remained as nominal head of state, now titled as chairman of the Estonian Supreme Soviet, until 1946.

The participants included Jüri Uluots, the last Prime Minister of Estonia before the Soviet occupation, the substitute for Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Johan Holberg, the chairman of the Chamber of Deputies Otto Pukk, the second deputy vice-chairman of the National Council Alfred Maurer, and State judge Mihkel Klaassen.

On that basis, Estonia maintains that the electoral law was illegal and unconstitutional, rendering all acts of the "People's Riigikogu" void.

Estonia also maintains that as a result, it did not need to follow the constitutional process of secession from the Soviet Unio, since it was reasserting an independence that still de jure existed.