MINSK, Belarus (AP) — The powerful Soviet Union may still exist after all, at least on paper.
Former Belarusian leader Stanislav Shushkevich says a historical document of 1991 that proclaimed the death of the Soviet Union is missing from the archives.
Shushkevich discovered that the document had gone while working on his memoirs. He said he believes that has been stolen, possibly by a former Belarusian official — probably with the intention to sell to a collector.
"It's hard to believe that the disappearance of a document at a level, but this is a fact," Shushkevich told the Associated Press.
Officials with the Government of Belarus and Russia-dominated Alliance of ex-Soviet Nations confirmed late Wednesday that only have copies.
"We don't know where the original is," said Vasily Ostreiko, head of the archive Department of the Commonwealth of independent States, which has its headquarters in Minsk, the Belarusian capital. "We have a copy of that document. Is certified in accordance with international standards, but it's still a copy. "
Disappearance of the document reflects the chaos that surrounded the 1991 demise of the Soviet Union, a superpower of 300 million people sprawled over nearly a dozen spindles and included what is now in 15 countries.
On December 8, 1991, Shushkevich has hosted Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk to secret talks at a Government hunting lodge near Viskuli in Belovezha forest. The trio signed an agreement stating that "the USSR ceased to exist as a subject of international law and the geopolitical reality", defeating the attempts of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to hold together the Soviet Union.
The agreement also announced the creation of the Commonwealth of independent States, a loose alliance joined by nine other Soviet republics that month.
Gorbachev resigned on December 25, 1991, the Soviet Communist empire that ruled with an iron fist for nearly 70 years has ceased to exist.
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