Putin's adviser claims the USSR still exists

Anton Kobyakov, an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has made a controversial claim regarding the former Soviet Union. According to him, the USSR still exists legally, as the procedure for its dissolution was never fully completed in accordance with constitutional law. He made these remarks on May 21 during an international legal forum in St. Petersburg.

"If the USSR had been created in 1922 by the Congress of People's Deputies, then its dissolution would have required a decision by this very body," Kobyakov stated.

He also commented on the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Agreements, signed on December 8, 1991.

"These agreements were later approved by the Supreme Soviets of the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, and the Belarusian SSR, but this was not within their legal competence. It is a strange situation from a legal standpoint," he said.

This argument has previously been raised by certain legal experts and political groups, who consider the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Accords “legally invalid,” asserting that the USSR never officially ceased to exist.

According to Kobyakov, this interpretation could serve as a legal basis for framing the conflict in Ukraine as an “internal process.”

“If the USSR was never legally dissolved, then logically, from a legal perspective, the Ukrainian crisis is an internal matter,” he said.

For context, the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Accords is the unofficial name of the “Agreement on the Establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)” signed on December 8, 1991, by the Republic of Belarus, the RSFSR, and Ukraine. These states had originally signed the treaty establishing the USSR in 1922.

The agreement declared that the USSR had ceased to exist as a subject of international law and a geopolitical reality, and it announced the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The agreement was signed by top officials and heads of government of the three founding republics: Stanislav Shushkevich and Vyacheslav Kebich from Belarus, Boris Yeltsin and Gennady Burbulis from the RSFSR, and Leonid Kravchuk and Vitold Fokin from Ukraine.