Exercise of the Right to Self-Determination: International Standards versus the Crimean Mess
Exercise of the Right to Self-Determination: International Standards versus the Crimean Mess

Author(s): Oleksandr Moskalenko
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, International Law
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar Sp. z o.o.
Keywords: Occupation; Crimea; referendum; international law; Ukrainian crisis
Summary/Abstract: This article studies the Russian annexation of Crimea from the perspective of international law, with its developed standards for the exercising of self-determination and secession rights. It argues that the Russian annexation is an evident case of military aggression and unlawful occupation, which has nothing to do with either self-determination or secession rights. The case of Crimea is unique, in the sense that it managed to violate every single standard, something that can hardly be observed in any other case. The absence of any secessionism on the Crimean political agenda, the strange and marginal people appointed as “Crimean leaders” by the Russian occupation forces, the phantasmagoria of their election at street meetings, and unidentified “little green men” – that was the background to what is called “the Crimean referendum”. But this event emerged as having nothing to do with democracy, or with the will of the Crimean people. Neither did it have anything in common with the international standards for a referendum. Organised in ten days, it was neither transparent nor free, as the Peninsula had already been occupied by the Russian troops starting the terror against the inhabitants.

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