DISINFO: Historical Crimean Russian land returned
DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS
Tags:
illegal annexation Manipulated elections/referendum Crimea Referendum

DISINFO: Historical Crimean Russian land returned

SUMMARY

Historical Russian lands were returned to Russia in accordance with a popular referendum that met all the internationally recognized legal and constitutional conditions.

The Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, granted the peninsula (Crimea) to the Republic of Ukraine for purely administrative reasons, and within the framework of the Soviet Union that brought Russia and Ukraine together in the framework of a single superpower.

RESPONSE

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the illegal annexation of Crimea.

No international body recognises the so-called referendum, announced 27th of February and held less than three weeks later.

On March 27th, 2014, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution in which it stated that the referendum in Crimea was not valid and could not serve as a basis for any change in the status of the peninsula. The oft-cited figure of 97% has been contested by the Kremlin’s own Human Rights Council, which estimated that only between 30% and 50% of Crimeans took part in the referendum, of which some 50-60% favoured secession.

See here for the EU statement on the fifth anniversary of Crimea annexation.

Furthermore, Crimea is part of Ukraine. In 1783 Catherine II (the Great) annexed Crimean peninsula. After that, the rivalry between the Russians and the Turks persisted, and in the Crimean War (1853–56) it expanded into a broader European conflict.

When the Revolution of 1917 led to the collapse of the Russian Empire, the remaining Crimean Tatars declared Crimea to be an independent democratic republic. The peninsula was reorganized as the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1921. After the war, Crimea was downgraded from an autonomous republic to an oblast (region) of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, and in 1954 it was transferred to Ukraine.

Further debunking by Polygraph.info

Read similar cases claiming that Crimean people have expressed their desire to rejoin Russia in a democratic process and that Crimea never belonged to Ukraine.

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Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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