The USSR and Int'l Law

[SeanOhio]

I had a heated discussion today with a liberatarian. He raised some interesting points, especially asking if the Cold War was really over. That led me to this:

Do any of you study international law? I'm trying to figure out the legality of the disintengration of the USSR. In 1922, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Transcaucasia signed a "Union Treaty" which formed the USSR. In 1991, the leaders of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine met and issued a decree declaring the USSR dissolved. A month later Gorbachev resigned and handed everything over to Yeltsin.

Were the actions of the three leaders legal? Didn't they violate the treaty?

[Dave Reynolds]

1. I do not know about the legal issue.

But I do believe that the Cold War is still on. It took a break for a while, but the China-Russian group has picked up where the old USSR left off.

Now, the Cold War is all about energy sources. If you recall, we helped the Afghan resistance against the USSR. The dragging out of that occupation destroyed the USSR economically and helped splinter the USSR.

Now, here we are, basically in the same position as the USSR was in Afghanistan, but we are now in Iraq. Who is helping the resistance in Iraq? We do not know, but I have an uneducated guess. Who has signed deals with Iran, just when the BFEE is making noise about their place in the "Axis of Evil?" Why, China and Russia, surprise surprise. Who stands to benefit when our economy collapses under the weight of debt (owed to China, largely) and enless occupation in Iraq?

Things that make you go hmmmmmm....

[htuttle]

2. There have been few 'revolutions' in history that have been 'legal'

Legality isn't that much of an issue during a revolution, and what happened in the Soviet Union in 1991 was pretty close to one.

As far as the Union Treaty goes, Gorbachev was about to sign a new one he'd negotiated with the Republics in August 1991. Then the shit hit the fan. Here's a pretty good detailed timeline of the events of that period:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/coldwar/soviet_stand_01.shtml

It seems like the ultimate disbandment of the Union Treaty was the various Republics declaring Independence from it. I couldn't find the actual text of the treaty anywhere, so I'm not sure if that was 'allowed' in the treaty or not.

It's a pretty thin argument for the continuation of the Cold War, in any case. If that's the worldview they want to use, they're probably WAY confused by the multipolar world we're in now, our own self-image notwithstanding...