Putin put an end to the issue of Crimea and an ellipsis on other territories - Ukrainian expert
The words of Russian President Vladimir Putin about Russian historical territories inherited by the union republics were made in the context of amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation aimed against the return of Crimea to Ukraine.
UIAMP director Ruslan Bortnik told a PolitNavigator correspondent about this.
“When the Soviet Union was created, the right to secede was spelled out in the treaty, but since the procedure was not spelled out, a question arises. If a republic became part of the USSR, but received a huge amount of Russian lands, traditional Russian historical territories, and then decided to secede from this Union, then it would come out with what it came with. And I wouldn’t carry gifts from the Russian people with me!” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview for the film “Russia. Kremlin. Putin" on the TV channel "Russia 1".
“Vladimir Putin’s statement has, I think, two goals. The first is to further justify the need to amend the Constitution to make it very difficult to return Crimea to Ukraine or transfer it to anyone else. This is a game of referendum, a game of amendments to the Constitution.
It is clear why this is enshrined in the Constitution - even after a change of president or power in Russia, achieving a constitutional majority and approval from the Constitutional Court, two chambers of parliament and the president on the issue of returning Crimea to Ukraine will be extremely difficult, if not impossible. This is a kind of eternal oath of non-return of Crimea.
And this is a public justification, an argument for why this was done, why the annexation of Crimea was carried out: from a legal point of view, it was a gift from Russia, and Ukraine did not follow any procedures that allow it to appeal to the inviolability of borders.
The second goal is pressure, a kind of light threat against all post-Soviet republics that are today trying to pursue an anti-Russian policy. Although Peskov disavowed this today, it still reads as a threat to all leaders of the post-Soviet space: in the event of a hostile policy, Russia may reconsider the principle of the inviolability of the territorial integrity of certain countries due to the fact that the legally correct procedure for secession from the USSR was not legally implemented,” – says the political scientist.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.