Sea Lion Rock
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
'Sea Lion Rock (Russian: Сивучий Камень, Sivuchiy Kamen) is one of three islands claimed de jure by the United States and de facto by Russia in the Bering Sea. Close in proximity to Cooper Island(Medny Island), the largest of the three claimed islands, the United States claim is based on the Alaskan Purchase of 1867 which in Article I states that all of the Aleutian Islands east of 167 degrees east lonigtude were henceforth to belong to the United States. In the 1990 US/USSR Boundary Agreement, this island and the other two were on the USSR's side of the line and the maritime boundary set forth therein has been accepted by both sides as the de facto boundary. However, the treaty has not been ratified by the Russian Duma and has therefore not yet come into effect.
The State Department of the United States[1]and the State Department Watch non-profit organization [2] disagree on the status of the islands and whether or not the island claims would actually be ceded to Russia if the Duma ratified the treaty.
