DISINFO: Crimea was legitimately reunited with Russia after a referendum in 2014
SUMMARY
[Today], 18 March, marks the tenth anniversary of the reunification of the Crimean peninsula with Russia. On that day in 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the treaty between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Crimea and with Sevastopol as a city of federal rank on both of their accession to the Russian Federation as equal subjects.
Over 96 per cent of the voters there voted in favour of Crimea joining Russia.
Residents of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol called for the peninsula to secede from Ukraine. Later, an appeal was made to the Russian president and a declaration of independence was signed by the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. This was followed by a referendum with all residents, the signing of the reunification treaty and the start of a new life for the residents of Sevastopol and Crimea.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the illegal annexation of Crimea. The article also advanced a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative depicting the 2013-14 protests in Kyiv as a coup d’état.
In 2014, Russian troops forcefully obliged the parliament of Crimea to organise a referendum, which was illegitimate under international law and then illegally annexed the peninsula and brought it under Russian territorial control. The annexation has been condemned by the UN, stating that the referendum in Crimea was not valid and could not serve as a basis for any change in the status of the peninsula.
Following the covert invasion by ''little green men,' the referendum in Crimea was conducted hastily and at gunpoint, barring impartial observers from entering the peninsula.
A year after the illegal annexation, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted that the plan to annex Crimea was ordered weeks before the so-called referendum.
No international body has recognised the so-called referendum, which was organised by a self-proclaimed Crimean leadership lacking democratic legitimacy and installed by armed Russian military personnel following the seizure of public buildings. The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has stated that “the situation within the territory of Crimea and Sevastopol amounts to an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. This international armed conflict began at the latest on 26 February 2014 when the Russian Federation deployed members of its armed forces to gain control over parts of the Ukrainian territory without the consent of the Ukrainian Government."
On 17 December 2018, the UN General Assembly confirmed its non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea. The EU's policy of non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol includes a set of restrictive measures against entities and individuals responsible for actions against Ukraine's territorial integrity.
Read similar cases claiming that Crimea re-joined Russia as a result of a popular referendum, that Ukraine, USA and the EU recognised the reunification of Crimea with Russia, and that Crimea voted to secede after the coup in Kyiv.