Look where the islands are located...
The State Department with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at the end of the Ford Administration unilaterally proposed to the Soviets in January 1977 a maritime boundary line. It was based on part of a line described in the 1867 treaty between the U.S. and Russia. [See 1867 Treaty.] The line starts midway between Attu Island and Copper Island in the Aleutian Island, proceeds northeast for about 950+ miles to a midpoint between Little Diomede Island and Big Diomede Island, and then turns due north into the Arctic Ocean.
The line places on the Russian side, 8 islands along with their 200-mile seabeds – that it seems, is what Alaska is having a fit about. Alaska says that this farce of a proposition, was not done by asking Alaska and it amounts to a giveaway of not only the Alaskan land territory, but also hundreds of thousands of square miles of seabeds to the Russians. There is no equal viability for the State of Alaska. These seabeds are rich in oil, gas, fisheries, and other resources worth billions of dollars. The oil and gas potential is measured in the billions of barrels. The fisheries are in the hundreds of millions of pounds per year, reflecting that Alaska is the number one fishing state in the USA…
The islands causing the turmoil are: Copper Island, Sea Lion Rock, Sea Otter Rock, Herald Island, Bennett, Jeannette, Henrietta Islands and Wrangell Island…
The situation is getting to the point that Alaska is pointing fingers at Obama and blaming him for not doing something about this terrible discrepancy of life against Alaska. Last time I looked, Obama had nothing to do with this situation… 🙂
Say what you want but this situation did not even have to be ratified: actually to put it in a nutshell – nothing had to be done at all to have said proposition go in effect: “…pending the entry into force of that [Maritime Boundary treaty] Agreement, the two Governments agree to abide by the terms of that Agreement as of June 15, 1990.” This is what Russia and America did and it extends to this day, 22 years later…
Oh yes – some of these islands have been administered by either the Soviet Union or Russia for well over one hundred years and it seems that America’s Alaska so called claim to the islands islands have never been really been claimed by the US government in over 100 years if ever at all at any time. It also seems that unless the islands have floated around lately that they are located much closer to Russia than Alaska. It is just possible that Russia has the real claim on these islands and that is why no US administration has ever done anything about trying to change the situation because it would do no good. The 1867 treaty seems to be the core for the boundary line…
Okay enough history today…
Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia!