Crimea Returns to Russia, March 16, 2014
Read Time:1 Minute, 9 Second
Seven years ago, the citizens of Crimea decided in a referendum to rejoin Russia. Turonout was 83,1%, and 87.77% voted Yes to joining Russia.
There’s a nice document on the website of the Republic of Crimea looking into the legal aspects and the legality of this referendum.
Some of the key points:
- Coup d’état on February 23, 2014 removed the constitutional order of Ukraine and the constitution was set aside;
- Crimea continued to be governed by a locally elected legal government;
- Crimea had a special legal status, and remained in Ukraine after 1991 only due to a legal compromise, which required a legal, democratically elected government in Kiew. The coup d’état destroyed that;
- There were threats of violence and ethnic cleansing against the population of Crimea (65% Russian and 13% Crimean Tatars);
- Action of Crimean government was founded in law and thus legal;
- Sevastopol was not part of Crimea since Oct. 29, 1948 and was a legal subject of the Russian SFSR;
- Transfer of Crimea from Russian SFSR to Ukraine in 1954 was illegal under the then constitutions of the USSR, Russian SFSR and Ukraine;
- Sevastopol’s transfer to Crimea and Ukraine was never based on any legally normative act of the USSR or Russian SFSR and was an unilateral act of Ukraine;
- The referendum was conducted in a democratic and transparent way;
Document in full (original source):
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0