DISINFO: The West position towards Crimea is offending its free will
SUMMARY
The West's position on Crimea is flawed and shameful, and it is trying to offend Crimea after the people of the peninsula expressed their will in the referendum (which took place after) the 2014 coup in Ukraine that was supported by Western partners.
...
Since then, the Russian language has been restricted in Ukraine, and attempts are being made to insult the free expression of the will of the Crimean population.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the illegal annexation of Crimea, claiming that it voted to rejoin Russia through a legal referendum after what is claims to be a coup d'etat supported by the West plus on Ukraine's language law.
Crimea is an internationally recognised part of Ukraine. Іn 1997, by signing the Friendship Agreement with Ukraine, Russia also recognised that Crimea belongs to Ukraine.
The so-called referendum that was organised hastily and at gunpoint following the covert invasion of “little green men” and barring impartial observers from entering the peninsula can hardly be called "reunification in strict accordance with all the norms of international law".
The referendum offered two choices: join Russia or return to Crimea’s 1992 constitution, which gave the peninsula significant autonomy. Those who favoured Crimea remaining part of Ukraine under the current constitution had no box to check.
Local authorities reported a turnout of 83%, with 96.7% voting to join Russia. The numbers seemed implausible, given that ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars accounted for almost 40% of the peninsula’s population. (Two months later, a leaked report from the Russian president’s Human Rights Council put turnout at only 30%, with about half of those voting to join Russia.)
Even Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, recognised on 17 April 2015 that "our soldiers were deployed in Crimea to help the inhabitants express their opinion." Vladimir Putin admitted that the plan to annex Crimea was ordered weeks before the so-called referendum.
No international body recognises the so-called referendum in Crimea, not the UN, nor the European Union.
And in June 2021, the European Council decided to renew the sanctions introduced in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by the Russian Federation until 31 January 2022, after being introduced on 31 July 2014.
Moreover, there was no coup d'état in Ukraine. The spontaneous onset of the Euromaidan protests was a reaction by numerous segments of the Ukrainian population to former president Viktor Yanukovych’s sudden departure from the promised Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013.
On another note, the Russian language is not restricted in Ukraine. Kyiv adopted a Law on ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as a state language, without discriminating against any languages.
The rule in question is part of the Law on Language and entered into force on 16 January 2021. The provision designates Ukrainian as the default language of Ukraine's service sector. Crucially, the law states that a language other than Ukrainian may be used to communicate "if the client insists on it, and provided that both sides settle on a mutually acceptable language of communication."
Article 10 of the Ukrainian Constitution guarantees the comprehensive development and functioning of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of public life. However, its implementation is being hampered by the Kremlin, its allies and affiliated media outlets.
Check previous disinformation narratives in our database alleging that the EU has accepted Crimea's incorporation into Russia and that the Crimean people chose to be with Russia through the democratic procedure; or that Crimea never belonged to Ukraine; or that the Western-backed coup in Ukraine has torn the country apart or in Ukraine it is forbidden to communicate in Russian; or that the Council of Europe is silent about discrimination against Russian speakers.