As the Kommersant newspaper wrote on 7 October 1991, a series of conflicts occurred in the RSFSR government during preparations for the signing of the Treaty on the Economic Community.
In his speech to members of the Russian parliament, RSFSR State Secretary Gennady Burbulis declared Russia's special role as the legal successor to the Soviet Union.
[3] On 18 October 1991, in the St. George Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace Mikhail Gorbachev and the leaders of eight Union republics (excluding Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Azerbaijan) signed the Treaty on the Economic Community as planned.
[7][8] Because of the referendum results and the actions of the Verkhovna Rada, Leonid Kravchuk refused on 7 December to sign such a political agreement that did not take Ukraine's status into account.
The Belovezha Accords were signed on 8 December, where it was Burbulis who authored the phrase “The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a subject of international law and geopolitical reality ceases to exist.”[9] The agreement declared the dissolution of the USSR by its remaining founder states (denunciation of the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR) and established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
[12] The "Guidelines on the Recognition of New States in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union", adopted by Ministers of the EC on 16 December 1991.
They note that the international rights and obligations of the former USSR, including those arising from the Charter of the United Nations, will continue to be exercised by Russia.
They note with satisfaction the acceptance by the Russian Government of these commitments and responsibilities and will continue to deal with Russia on this basis, taking into account the change in its constitutional status.
Recognition of the independence of other 11 countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan) occurs on the condition that they assume the obligations under the treaties signed by the Soviet Union, including respect for the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations and the commitments subscribed to in the Final Act of Helsinki and in the Charter of Paris, guarantees for the rights of ethnic and national groups and minorities, respect for the inviolability of all frontiers and acceptance of all relevant commitments with regard to disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation as well as to security and regional stability.
[21][22] On December 30, 1991, 11 countries signed the Agreement between the participant states of the Commonwealth of Independent States on Strategic Forces, according to which "the member states of the Commonwealth recognize the need for a unified command of the Strategic Forces and the maintenance of unified control over nuclear weapons", "For the period until their complete destruction, nuclear weapons deployed on the territory of Ukraine are under the control of the unified command of the Strategic Forces with the aim of not using them and dismantling them by the end of 1994, including tactical nuclear weapons - by July 1, 1992", "The process of destroying nuclear weapons deployed on the territory of the Republic of Belarus and Ukraine is carried out with the participation of the Republic of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine under the joint control of the Commonwealth states".
[31] As the Kommersant newspaper wrote in 2006, "The statement of a group of creditor countries made during negotiations between representatives of the governments of these countries and a delegation of the Russian Federation in Paris on 2 April 1993 noted that the issue of the distribution of responsibility for the payment of the debt of the former USSR to foreign creditors should be resolved through the conclusion of bilateral agreements between the Russian Federation and other successor states of the former Union.
In 2017, the Russian Ministry of Finance announced that it had paid off the entire debt of the USSR and the last country to receive the money was Bosnia and Herzegovina.
[35] In 2014, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk raised the issue, to which the Russian Foreign Ministry responded at the time that Moscow reserves the right to insist that Ukraine immediately compensate $20 billion if Kiev returns to the “zero option” problem.
[36] In 2020, 2021 and 2022, Vladimir Putin reminded that Ukraine has still not ratified and acted on the signed document and continues to demand some of the assets of the former Soviet Union.
The speaker of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, responded that Kiev should have taken on one third of the USSR debts before making such claims.