Lietuvos ir Rusijos santykių vektorius 1990-2004 metais

Abstract

The process of negotiations between the Republic of Lithuania and the Russian Federation, then the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), on the treaty on the Foundations of Interstate Relations lasted for almost 11 months. In 1990, the Republic of Lithuania, which de iure became a fully independent state under the Act of 11 March, sought to restore the former state relations between the two independent states that existed before the occupation and annexation of Lithuania by the USSR in 1940. But the USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachev wanted to preserve the USSR empire and annexed Lithuania as a part of it. In the initial stage of “negotiations on negotiations” the USSR made a precondition that the negotiations should be conducted only on the status of Lithuania’s statehood within the Soviet Union. The adoption of the Declaration on the State Sovereignty of the RSFSR on 12 June 1990 which opened up a real opportunity for Lithuania to regulate state relations directly with the Russian Federation could be considered the breakthrough of the process.