As of: March 12, 2024, 2:11 p.m
By: Alexandra Heidsiek
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Press
Split
A new proposal in the State Duma aims to nullify the 1954 transfer of Crimea to Ukraine - again.
Moscow – Two members of the Russian parliament have submitted a remarkable proposal: They want to have the handover of Crimea to Ukraine in 1954 declared invalid.
The argument goes that the transfer contradicted the constitution of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (UkrSSR).
The decision disregarded the will of the Russian people and was therefore a political crime.
The Russian state news agency Tass
reported this on Monday (March 11)
.
Russia celebrates the annexation of Crimea (archive image) © picture alliance/dpa |
Str
Crimean ping-pong between Russia and Ukraine began in the 18th century
The history of Crimea is turbulent.
The Tatars lived on the peninsula for centuries until Russia's Empress Catherine the Great annexed it in 1783 and gradually drove out the native population.
In 1954, the then head of state of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, made Crimea part of Ukraine again.
The main occasion was the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslav, which marked the beginning of Ukrainian-Russian relations.
Why exactly Khrushchev, himself a Ukrainian, and his Politburo decided on the transfer is controversial.
The official version of the Communist Party (CPSU) was that the return was a “noble act” of the Russian people, intended to demonstrate “boundless trust and love” towards Ukrainians.
In addition, the geographical, cultural and economic proximity also speaks in favor of Crimea being annexed to Ukraine.
It is more likely that Khrushchev wanted to cement Soviet patronage in the republic with his gesture: as a practical side effect, the Russian population in the UkrSSR increased with the takeover of Crimea.
According to the German Bundestag, the handover of Crimea to Ukraine in 1954 was constitutional
The circumstances of the Crimean “gift” are therefore nebulous.
But did Khrushchev act constitutionally?
The German Bundestag already dealt with this in 2014 in response to the renewed annexation of the peninsula by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The scientific study comes to the conclusion: The Supreme Soviets of the UkrSSR and the RSFSR both approved the transfer of territory.
The transfer was therefore carried out in accordance with the constitution.
In addition, since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia has signed several internationally binding treaties that recognize Ukraine's territorial borders.
These include, among others, the Budapest Memorandum of 1994 and the Black Sea Fleet Statute of 1997.
Russia has been trying to annex the peninsula for a long time
The two Duma deputies Konstantin Zatulin and Sergei Zekov, who submitted the application, obviously see it differently.
They justify their proposal by wanting to rid Russia of vain actions that were not lawful and that “lead to lawlessness and political crimes and are based on abuse of power and harm the Russian people.”
They also point out, according to
Tass
, that – unlike 2014 – no referendum was held in 1954.
In addition, the USSR would have had the power to redraw borders between the republics - but not to move territories.
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Like the state agency
Further reported, the applicants see their goal as removing the basis for the alleged Western propaganda that Crimea was occupied by Moscow in 2014.
Ultimately, they call the borders of independent Ukraine, recognized by both the Russian and Ukrainian sides in 1991, “wrong.”
The application is not the first project of this kind. As early as 1992, Russia questioned the legality of the 1954 handover of Crimea and subsequently declared it null and void.
The fact that Khrushchev gave away the peninsula in the Black Sea to the Tsar and Putin therefore only wants to restore supposed historical justice is a popular propaganda motif in the Russian state media.
It is questionable what the new proposal would change the status quo.
(uh)