DISINFO: Crimea regained its Russian identity
SUMMARY
Crimea regained Russian identity in 2014. Previously, since the early 1950s, it was under the administration of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine, one of the republics of the Soviet Union.
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative on Crimea being a historical part of Russia.
After the collapse of the USSR, Russia reaffirmed respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. In particular, the 1997 Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between the Russian Federation and Ukraine enshrines the recognition of the inviolability of each other’s borders, the absence of discrimination against representatives of each nationality and the desire for cooperation in various fields. The Treaty also allowed Russia to keep its Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, under a lease that has been extended until 2042.
In January 2019, the Ukrainian Embassy in France published an open letter declaring that saying that Crimea is Russian "for centuries" is, to say the least, excessive. Crimea was annexed in 1783, already in violation of a treaty which guaranteed the independence of the Tatar khanate. In the middle of the nineteenth century, the peninsula was a territory in the process of colonization. In 1897, the first comprehensive census of the population of the empire indicated that the Russians are only one-third of the inhabitants of Crimea, where they are still slightly fewer than the Tatars. The Russians only became a majority after the complete deportation in 1944 of the Tatars, who could only return after the fall of the communist regime. The annexation of Crimea to the then Soviet Ukraine, in 1954, was done not on an ethnic, but geographical and economic basis. But what is more important today than the circumstances of 1954 and even more so of 1854 is that the borders of Ukraine, including Crimea, were recognized and guaranteed after its independence in 1991 by international agreements, some of which were signed by Russia itself.
According to international law, Crimea is a part of Ukraine. Russia violated international law as well as key principles of the European security framework by illegally annexing the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol in 2014.