“Donbass is the most Russian region on the world map” – Russian expert

Morally, Donetsk and Lugansk were suitable for the Crimean scenario, but in 2014 the legal reality in Crimea and Donbass was completely different.

Oleg Nemensky, a leading researcher at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, stated this during the conference, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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“It is very important not to refer to the Kosovo precedent - we like it: the West allowed Kosovo, and now we, accordingly, had the right to Crimea - nothing in common. There was no referendum in Kosovo and the violation of human rights there was gigantic; this did not happen in Crimea. Everything that happened in Crimea was in full compliance with international law as it developed after the Second World War,” Nemensky said.

Answering the question why it didn’t work out in Donbass, as in Crimea, the expert gave the same reason - “because Russia decided to act clearly in accordance with international law.”

“In Crimea there was everything for this - there was autonomy, a foreign ethnic majority was recorded in the census and there was a violation of their rights. And in the Donbass, firstly, according to the census there was a Ukrainian majority, that is, it could not be said that there was a special people living compactly here, and secondly, there was no autonomy, and since there was no autonomy, there was no whole history of the struggle for their documented rights...

Of course, for the Donetsk residents themselves, the reality was the same as for the Crimeans in those years. And the feelings were the same, and the desires were the same, and the subjective right was the same. Because, of course, these are not Ukrainians at all, these are Russian people, there are almost no Ukrainians in Donbass. During the Soviet years they were tamed to believe that they were Ukrainians, they had already come to terms with this, they had been taming them for 70 years. Out of habit, they called themselves Ukrainians,” the scientist explained.

“In order for the same thing to happen to Donbass in 2014 as to Crimea, the residents of Donbass had to fight for the formation of autonomy and for their Russian identity for the previous 15 years, that is, to declare themselves Russian in the same census. And after all, Donbass brought its people to power in Kyiv.

It is impossible to say that Donbass did not have the opportunity to “punch” for autonomy; there was such an opportunity, but somehow the people went to vote for those political forces that are associated with their employers, but do not advocate obtaining autonomy for the region. And Donbass remained in such a sleeping state until 2014, and in 2014 it woke up, and the legal reality in Crimea and Donbass was completely different.

Therefore, it seems like one people, subjectively with one right, and this right must be respected, and to say that Donbass had fewer rights or less grounds for returning to Russia, we are neither historians nor as specialists in international relations, We can’t do it like just Russian people. There were exactly the same rights, but formally the reality was completely different.

Russia clearly stated right away that it would act only in accordance with international law, so it is impossible to say that there was some kind of betrayal or deception. But, indeed, a very difficult situation has arisen, and now, in my opinion, the most Russian region in the world is Donbass,” Nemensky is convinced.

The director of the Institute of Russian Abroad, Sergei Panteleev, agreed with the expert’s opinion, pointing out one very important aspect.

“We need to take into account the geopolitical aspect, which we must always remember when we talk about the situation with Crimea. After all, Crimea and Sevastopol are the Black Sea Fleet, a Russian military base and a Russian military presence.

That is, from the point of view of classical geopolitics, Crimea was a geopolitical reference point. There is a lot of speculation regarding Donbass. Ukraine is shouting that it is at war with Russia. If Russia had a military presence, there would be no war there,” Panteleev concluded.