former states of the USSR; in a letter dated 24 December 1991, the Russian President Boris Yeltsin informed the Secretary-General that the membership of the USSR in the Security Council and all other United Nations organs was being continued by the Russian Federation with the support of the nine member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. All Soviet embassies became Russian embassies. Ukraine, the successor state of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (legally) being one of the founding members of the Soviet Union, has not recognized the exclusive Russian claims to succession of the Soviet Union and claimed such status for Ukraine as well, which was stated in Articles 7 and 8 of Law on the Succession of Ukraine issued in 1991. After independence, Ukraine has continued to pursue claims against the Russian Federation in foreign courts, seeking to recover its share of the foreign property that was formerly owned by the Soviet Union. A special case for the Baltic states had existed. An important tenet of the modern states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is that their incorporation into the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1991 constituted an illegal occupation. In 1991 when each Baltic state regained their independence they claimed continuity directly from their pre-1940 status. Many other states share this view, and as such, these states were not considered either predecessor or successor states of the Soviet Union. As a consequence, the Baltic states were able to simply re-establish diplomatic relations with countries, re-affirm pre-1940 treaties still in force, and resume membership to international organizations. A similar situation applies to the Caucasus countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, which claimed continuity of the pre-1921 republics before being conquered by the Red Army. Yugoslavia After four of the six constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia seceded in 1991 and 1992, the rump state, renamed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, stated it was the continuation of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia—against the objections of the newly independent republics. Representatives from Belgrade continued to hold the original Yugoslavian UN seat—however, the United States refused to recognize it. The remaining territory of the federation was less than half of the population and territory of the former federation. In 1992 the Security Council on 19 September (Resolution 777) and the General Assembly on 22 September, decided to refuse to allow the new federation to sit in the