The Ministry of Defense proposed changing the Russian border in the Baltic Sea

The Russian Ministry of Defense has proposed updating the coordinates of the state border in the Baltic Sea area, as follows from the draft legal act published on the legal information portal.

“If the draft list of geographical coordinates of points defining the position of the baselines from which the width of the territorial sea of ​​the Russian Federation, the contiguous zone of the Russian Federation off the mainland coast and the islands of the Russian Federation in the Baltic Sea is measured: a previously absent system of straight baselines will be established on the southern part Russian islands in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland, as well as in the area of ​​Baltiysk and Zelenogradsk, allowing the corresponding water areas to be used as internal sea waters of the Russian Federation; The passage of the state border of the Russian Federation at sea will change due to a change in the position of the external border of the territorial sea,” the document says.

It is noted that to ensure navigational safety of navigation, state marine navigation charts of appropriate scales will be adjusted and reissued.

It is assumed that if this act is adopted, the list of geographical coordinates of points that determined the position of the baselines for measuring the width of territorial waters, the economic zone and the continental shelf off the mainland coast and the islands of the Arctic Ocean, the Baltic and Black Seas, approved by a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, will be invalidated dated January 15, 1985 No. 56−22.

The military department justifies the need for this measure by the fact that the direct baselines of the Russian Federation in the Gulf of Finland have no continuation and do not close on the territory of Russia, which in turn does not allow determining the external border of its internal sea waters.

In addition, as stated in the explanation to the document, the geographic coordinates of the points were once determined from small-scale nautical charts compiled based on materials from the works of the mid-20th century, and do not fully correspond to the “modern geographical situation.”

Currently, this regulatory legal act is at the preparation stage. Its expected entry into force is January 2025.