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Baltic states fueling artificial tensions - Gorbachev

MOSCOW. May 6 (Interfax) - Ex-Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev said the Baltic states are fuelling artificial tensions around the 1939 Soviet-German non-aggression treaty, known also as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which led to their inclusion in the Soviet Union.

In a Friday interview with Interfax, Gorbachev praised President Vladimir Putin for recalling that the Soviet Congress of People's Deputies officially denounced the pact in 1989.

However, analyzing political events surrounding WWII, Gorbachev pointed out that "there was not only the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, but there were also the Potsdam and Yalta Conferences, at which documents were signed by the Allies."

"Any wars, especially that one, produce changes in the world order. But there was also the 1975 Helsinki Act, which consolidated all post-war realities 30 years after the war. What do we do with this?" he said.

"But the world developed further, the Cold War ended, democratic processes started developing in the Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe, and all these changes eventually helped the Baltic states withdraw from the USSR, which was endorsed by the Soviet State Council," he said.